On May 6, I went to St. Anthony Catholic School for our monthly Kindness Workshop. The Act of Kindness from my book, “Plant a Garden of Kindness, A Child’s Guide to Filling a Year with Weekly Acts of Kindness”, that Ms. Rupnik chose for this workshop was “#32 – Clean Your Park”.
We all had a great time. The kids really felt proud of their hard work because they knew that it was important, and that it was making their great school even greater.
I thought that I would share some lessons that we learned with respect to important supplies for this activity:
1. Gloves
Make sure that all participants have plastic gloves – or, sometimes you can find biodegradable dog poo bags that are in the shape of a mitt or glove, then you can feel better about the waste that you are creating in order to clean up the park.
Another good point, Ms. Rupnik only gave each student one glove for the hand with which they would be picking up the garbage – that cuts down on your waste by half!
Or it would be even better if each of the children had a pair of cloth gardening gloves that they could use and keep for future activities. But I know that this might not be possible for all situations – it might be cost prohibitive.
2. Compost Bags
Bring a compost bag or have a green bin handy for natural items like leaves and sticks.
3. Recycling Containers
The big recycling containers are a bit large to carry around, but you could bring a bucket to put paper/cardboard in and another bucket to put plastic/glass in. Then you can dump those items into the appropriate recycling bin at the end of the clean-up.
4. Garbage Bag
Bring a garbage bag for things that can’t be composted or recycled.
5. Rake
If your park has a lot of leaves left from the fall, you might want to bring a rake to get them all picked up.
Stay tuned for more photos and stories from the fantastic Kindness Workshop.