The
next event for our school was our community service in the form of a
Clean-a-thon around the town of Kimbe. Faculty,
admin, and students (and several parents) gathered at school at 6:30 a.m. on a
Saturday and headed out of our campus and into the town of Kimbe, brooms,
rakes, gloves and trash bags in hand, with the mission to pick up all trash
(rubbish, as it is called here) to make the town a more pleasant place.
We
broke off into groups by grade level and were assigned a certain area to
clean. Two teachers were assigned to
monitor each grade level. I was assigned
to monitor the Grade 12 students. We
went around the area designated for us and cleaned for about 2-3 hours. When we were done, we looked back and
realized how nice the town looked. As we
cleaned, people who had come to shop were able to witness us picking up rubbish
and thanked us or made nice comments about our work.
Since
that one day, we have also joined efforts with a local company who also
organized their own clean-a-thon and again we were able to witness to the
community of how to care for the town.
Now we are seeing less rubbish thrown around the town. Some businesses have now put out rubbish bins
in front of their store, posted signs asking people to dispose of their rubbish
responsibly, and some businesses are now sending their employees out to clean
their respective sidewalk area a few minutes before closing. This was something not done prior to our
clean-a-thon. The sisters have decided
that we will have a monthly clean-a-thon from now on to help “change the
mindset of people” to help them become responsible for keeping the town
clean. The mayor of the town is also
supporting our efforts as are several businesses by providing gloves, trash
bags, water, and snacks for our students to use and enjoy during our
clean-a-thon. Also, the mayor has asked
businesses to take responsibility to maintain their areas clean.
To be continued...
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