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Schools
Students collect a ton of trash
LITHIA - Kids at Randall Middle School turn a good deed along the Alafia into a teachable moment.
By TRACI RADER, Times Correspondence
Published January 25, 2008
This wasn't a typical school holiday. A group of 125 students from Randall Middle School descended on the Alafia River near Lithia-Pinecrest Road on Monday to collect bottles, cans and other trash. The project on Martin Luther King Jr. Day was organized by the school's Service Learning Council and seventh-grade teacher Kristy Verdi. Their take by day's end: about 2,000 pounds of debris, including furniture, cardboard boxes and plastic. "I'm just amazed at all the beer containers in this area," said seventh-grader Jordyn Morley, who realizes that a lot of the trash comes from high school kids who use it as a party spot. "When I get to high school, I'm going to urge my friends not to be a part of this." It's not just teenagers making the mess, said Shannon Locke, an environmental detective for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. When Locke caught a construction company dropping debris, it took 13 dump trucks and close to $20,000 to clean it up. Earlier this month, Locke arrested a landscaping company worker on charges of dumping eight truckloads of tree trimmings along the river. T.J. Krueger has seen many unusual things in the river while picking up trash. "Years ago I saw a cow bottom up in the river, and last year I found part of a truck foot pedal and a gun safe in the water," said Krueger, who runs a boat and kayak rental business. County parks workers and the Sheriff's Office put up roadblocks to stop people from driving along the river to dump waste, but they're often torn down quickly. The Sheriff's Office now has deputies assigned to the parks and recreation areas to better address such problems before they get out of hand. For Verdi, the cleanup was also a teachable moment: The students researched what they wanted to do, found their own volunteers, and learned about the Alafia River and its history. Verdi hit her students with surprise questions during the cleanup. "Jake, how long is the Alafia River?" Verdi asked. "Twenty-five miles long," sixth-grader Jake Hughes said.
[Last modified January 25, 2008, 02:12:15]
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