Seventeen fourth graders from Julius E. Sprauve Elementary School spent Wednesday morning cleaning up Cruz Bay Beach, and they got a firsthand glimpse of why it’s important when a dolphin swam into view.
V.I. National Park Education Specialist Laurel Brannick said that the presence of sea life, including a starfish, indicate that Cruz Bay is getting cleaner.
The students were kept busy picking up mounds of cigarette butts, plastic straws, pen caps, and other assorted debris as part of a Coastweeks cleanup.
"These smell like pee," one student said as he picked up some cans.
Cruz Bay beach is a favorite sleeping place for homeless people who spend their days nearby in Cruz Bay Park. The students found several containers filled with urine left behind by those with no easy access to toilet facilities.
The cigarette butts were the worst offenders. Sprauve students picked up the same area during last year’s Coastweeks clean up, and the situation isn’t one bit better this year.
Audrey Penn, program manager at the Friends of V.I. National Park, said the cigarette butt situation called for the installation of some receptacles so smokers wouldn’t leave their butts on the beach. The Friends organize Coastweeks events on St. John.
The kids had opinions on the matter too.
"It’s bad to be smoking and put the garbage on the ground," Talesha Prentice, 9, said.
The youths had obviously learned the lessons taught when Brannick, visited their classroom this week.
"We’re helping St. John to be clean," said Diane Jackson, 10, echoing the remarks of many of her classmates.
Diane Cameron, who teaches this fourth-grade class, saw the clean up as a chance for her students to learn about the environment.
"They need to learn about keeping the place clean," she said.
Brannick recently made a trip to St. Thomas where she saw a teenager throw an empty potato chip bag on the floor at the Red Hook ferry terminal. She said she noticed the roadside along the road that runs from Red Hook to Marriott Frenchman’s Reef Beach Resort was littered with debris.
That’s why it’s important to get kids onboard at a young age with the concept of keeping the island clean, Brannick said.
"And I personally don’t want to live among all the garbage," she added.
The students tallied up what they had picked up at the beach, a part of the process so the Ocean Conservancy, which sponsors the world-wide coastal clean up in September, can develop statistics on beach debris.
When they were done, the students headed to I Scream, an ice cream spot in Wharfside Village, for complimentary servings of ice cream.
"It’s nice when adults do something for kids," Brannick said.
The I Scream owner could not be reached for further comment.