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Duchesne, STH and IWA Environmental Clubs Cleanup at Woodlands Park

By Tessa Harfenist, Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart, School Buzz Reporter | March 16, 2023

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From left to right: Mara Catherine Wissinger, Kate Thorne, Andrea GarzaEstebanez, Kiera Gilmour, Carmen Colon, and Cecilia Carrasco receiving their trash bags before heading out to the bayou. (Photo: St. Thomas Environmental Club)

On Saturday March 4, Duchesne students joined with St. Thomas and Incarnate Word Academy (IWA) at Woodland Park in the Greater Heights to help Friends of the Woodland Park. Friends of Woodland Park is a nonprofit volunteer organization committed to preserving Woodland Park’s natural habitat, resources, and history. The Duchesne Environmental Club leaders are juniors Sophia Rivera, Kate Thorne, and sophomore Andrea GarzaEstebanez. They founded Duchesne’s first environmental club in the beginning of this school year. Representatives from St. Thomas’ environmental club reached out to Sophia Rivera to see if Duchesne was interested in joining them and IWA for the project.

From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., members of the cleanup initiative disposed trash out of the bayou and the surrounding area.

From left to right: Juniors Mara Catherine Wissinger and Kate Thorne scavenging for trash around the bayou grounds.
(Photo: Andrea GarzaEstebanez)

Junior volunteer Carmen Colon shared her experience cleaning up the park: “We found three shopping carts. Unfortunately, they were only able to dig one of them out of the mud with the supplies we had because the other two were deeply submerged in the mud. Many car tires were also found in and around the water. We were able to pull about six tires out of the water and throw them away.”

Around halfway through their volunteering, the girls took a 30-minute pizza break. On the site there was a water cooler which hydrated the girls who took small breaks throughout the day. Some girls were given trash bags and assigned to “basic pickup duty” while others were given magic erasers to clean graffiti off trees.

All of the trash was compiled at the end of the cleanup near the front of the parking lot. (Photo: Andrea GarzaEstebanez)

Carmen Colon explained why she felt compelled to volunteer her time, remarking, “I have always known that the bayou was very polluted, but I had never had the chance to do anything about it. Cleaning the bayou with my friends and classmates allowed us to get closer while also improving our environment and community. If given the chance to go back and continue to clean the bayou, I would absolutely take it.”

Duchesne’s Environmental Club has many future projects ahead to continue to help the environment- one being a beach cleanup in April at Galveston for the marine conservation aspect of the club.