Dear Source:
The Environmental Association St. Thomas-St. John (EAST) would like to thank the Youth Group (XYG) of the St. Thomas Reformed Church (Camren and Jordan Bunn, Hannah and Shaw Clements, Julian deJongh, Grant Farrell, Nicholas, Nalani and Natalia Figueroa, Daisy Garner, Isabella Hawkes, Maggie James, Karson Kendall, Cameron Newton, Tiareh Schaub, Melia Scott, Anthony Smith, Solana Suazo, Caroline Teare, Alex Whitter, Silas Wisehart, Jesse Wyatt) along with their Pastor Jeffrey Neevel, adult leaders, Kelly Neevel, Nicole Wheatley and Jon Tuel and several other members of the church, My Brother’s Workshop director Jenny Hawkes and trainer Donald Rivera Jr. with the members of EAST and volunteers that include Nicole Aubain, Jonisha Aubain, Sky Moraino, Akima Richardson, Rudy and Floreciata Brunn on Saturday, January 31 for the Nadir/Bovoni playground- Basketball court and area Watershed clean up.
Special thanks to Karl Callwood for taking some time out for photos of the event and to also speak one on one with the students about the importance of protecting and maintaining our watersheds with me. Sorry, if we might have missed your names and if so you have not been forgotten for your worthy efforts.
That day over 28 students and volunteers removed over 43 bags of trash, broken parts and tires equal to a full flat bed of items that affect the health and safety of the area residents. We cut the grass and removed the underlining trash in the field or flood plain areas at the entrance of the park and watershed area, planted a native tree for erosion control and shade, and filled the shed area planter boxes with native plants for beatification. We replaced the basketball court nets with new ones and weeded around all of the playground areas and left a trash barrel behind for use. We then moved to the street areas by the “Bridge to Nowhere” and removed more trash that would eventually end up in our waterways that lead to our mangroves.
At the end of the day we played a great game of basketball and hoped that everyone would visit a park in your area and help to protect and preserve our open spaces and recreational areas.
Jason Budsan, St. Thomas