This past weekend, the Chaminade Sustainability Corps (CSC) took part in a trash bash where we met up with Earthday-365 and other local volunteers to help clean up our city. Earthday-365 is a nonprofit started in St. Louis that focuses on the environment in many creative and impactful ways. Although they help organize trash bashes such as this one, they also provide many other sustainable services. I recommend checking out their initiatives here. Through this trash bash, CSC learned firsthand the effects of illegal dumping in our communities and helped clean up the alleys around Gravois Park.

Picture this: trash is piled up above your knees directly besides an empty trash bin. This trash will never get picked up unless someone like you who cares a whole awful lot decides to take action and clean it up. While this seems to be the polar opposite of an easy or glamourous activity, it was a truly lifechanging experience for everyone involved. It taught us in an eye-opening way that trash does not simply vanish after it leaves our immediate vicinity. In total, our group of volunteers relocated over 100 cubic yards of trash off the streets of St. Louis.

Along with Chaminade’s art teachers, Mr. and Mrs. Laury, eleven Chaminade students showed up to represent our school community, show what we believe in, and get some service hours while they were at it. We urge you to look at your own communities for a way to make it better for both the people living there and the environment itself. CSC plans to hold many more of these clean ups and invites any student or member of the Chaminade family to participate in them.