On Saturday April 23^rd, a group of AHS staff members, parents, and about twenty students headed by Student Senate members lead a campus cleanup. Trash was picked up, flowers were planted, and overall, these twenty students spent their day from 8-12 working hard to keep our campus beautiful.

“I think we did make a difference, even if it was small,” sophomore Student Senate member Jordan Fox said. “I think it’s nice to clean everything out at the beginning of spring and overall I think the school looks at lot better.”

Fox added that in addition to simply cleaning the campus and picking up trash, students also worked on projects to make the campus better such as planting flowers around the beach, middle school, bus barn, and other areas of the school, and also on repurposing old objects that could be used again. One of these projects a group of students worked on was tidying up a few old benches that were out by the language lab, and moving them to an accessible location.

“We found these benches that weren’t being used in a less frequently visited area of the school, so we made them look nicer and brought them out to the beach for everyone to enjoy,” Fox said.

Although students agree that it was definitely beneficial to pick up trash around campus, sophomore Chelsea Moore said that she was surprised with the lack of trash lying around.

“There was only a lot of trash by the ARC Bridge, but other than that it wasn’t that bad. It made me pretty happy that we only filled one bag in my round,” Moore said.

Although a group of twenty students is a fairly small fraction of the student population, AHS teacher and campus cleanup leader Tameira Wilson was pleased with the turnout, especially compared to the attendance last year.

“We understand that it’s difficult to find a time that works for everybody, and on [the day of the campus cleanup] there were both baseball and lacrosse games,” Wilson said. “But we had five students who weren’t part of student senate show up, and that’s five more than last year.”

Wilson added that the campus cleanup is definitely something she wants to continue leading in future years, and even thinks that it could be additional to add another campus cleanup in the fall in preparation for winter.

“This time of year when the snow melts, there tends to be a good amount of trash left and maybe a pre-winter cleanup could help that,” Wilson said.

Overall, the campus cleanup appeared to be a success, and in addition, it was a rewarding experience for the students who participated.

“I found it really rewarding just to give something back to our school,” Fox said. “It definitely felt good to be part of something that makes our school a prettier place for people to see.”