On Sunday, March 25, 2018, Kean University students helped to clean up Warinanco Park as part of Union County Parks' Adopt-A-Park program.
The group of about 30 students awoke early that Sunday to travel to the designated park. The team was led by Center for Leadership and Service employee Kristen Faila and Greek Life Director Alex Louis.
Upon arriving at Warinanco Park, the group was greeted by Betty Ann Kelly, the environmental specialist at Union County Department Parks and Community Renewal.
Kelly explained that the main objective of the day was to clean up the streams as they had built up a lot of litter from the past snow and rain storms. To do this, students had the job of raking up leaves, picking up trash and moving fallen branches.
The purpose of raking up fallen leaves was to help previously planted wild flowers to get more sunlight. The wild flowers function to avoid too much erosion of the land surrounding the stream. They are able to do this because of their extensive root systems that help to anchor the soil down. Too large of a load of leaves in bodies of water may also work to restrict the growth of species in the waters.
Concurrently, other students gathered branches that had fallen during the previous storms to restore the aesthetics of the park.
As some students raked leaves or removed branches, other students picked up trash and recycling from the ground and streams. This buildup of trash often comes from people throwing out things from their cars, leaving waste behind at the nearby picnic area or dropping garbage as they walk through the parks. All this trash will eventually come back to bodies of water as they fall into sewage systems or get picked up by wind or surface water runoff.
Students filled up a surprising amount of plastic bags as they walked through the park, finding colorfully packaged waste products misplaced within the natural beauty of the park.
Danielle Olisten, a criminal justice and psychology major, had initially joined the Adopt-A-Park program to fulfill her required leadership volunteer hours in a fun way.
Olisten commented, "I used to go to parks, but I never really cared about the trash and such. I didn't realize how much effort you have to put in to make our parks really beautiful. Today I learned to treat my park a little bit better so I don't have to do all this stuff. It opened my eyes [making me] worry more about the things that I do. [As a result], I will try to be a better person and make the environment a better place."
Adopt-A-Park is an ongoing program held by the Union County Parks to clean up and restore the 35 parks of Union County. Kean University is committed to continuously sending volunteers to assist in these efforts.
To find volunteer opportunities such as these, visit Cougar Link.
For more information on Adopt-A-Park, visit ucnj.org.
