DHS senior leads 54 volunteers in wetlands cleanup
Published 12:21 am Saturday, October 31, 2015
- Swamp Sweep students pick up trash along the Wetland Watchers Park nature trail. Pictured, from front to back, are Nijai’ Smith, Da’ja Thomas and Laisha Harris.
NORCO — Destrehan High student Hailey Rico recently led her “Swamp Sweep” senior project at Wetland Watchers Park in Norco that include a huge effort by community volunteers to collect trash along the lake and bayou shorelines, as well as along the nature trails.
Swamp Sweep student volunteers clean up litter on the bayou pier at Wetland Watchers Park. Pictured, from left, are Rylee Morales, Ke’Chelle Heims, David Frey, Victoria Freitas and Mykayla Henry.
Rico coordinated her project with the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation’s Beach Sweep by attending meetings as the region’s Zone Captain. Once tallied, trash totals that volunteers collected at Wetland Watchers Park will be included in the statistics for the International Coastal Clean-up.
Rico’s project included 56 volunteers collecting 14 huge bags of trash and piles of junk. The majority of the volunteers were students from Harry Hurst Middle School and Destrehan High School.
Students found aluminum cans and plastic bottles constituted most of the items picked up. Unexpected trash included barbecue pits and numerous single shoes.
The item that upset all of the volunteers were dirty disposable diapers thrown long the nature trail and near the outdoor classrooms.
Wetland Watchers Coordinator Barry Guillot, a teacher at Hurst Middle, said he was proud of Rico.
“She was a great Wetland Watchers volunteer in middle school, and I am glad she chose to focus her senior project on cleaning up along our wetlands,” Guillot said.
Rico said she was thankful for everyone who supported her senior project.
“The kids did a great job,” she said. “It was nice seeing younger kids volunteering their time on the weekend to come out and help their community. I think it is important for kids to help their community as much as possible. Picking up litter is probably one of the best ways, because it doesn’t only help beautify the park, but it also helps save the lives of many animals. I hope that the kids had as much fun as I did.”
According to Joann Haydel, Education Coordinator for the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, Rico’s senior project worked in conjunction with 1,890 volunteers that picked up 895 bags of trash.
“That translates into 15, 215 pounds of trash that will not wash into our beautiful Lake Pontchartrain!” Haydel said.
