A Party in the Park

Memorial Day has become a weekend long holiday of families gathering to remember those who lost their lives while serving in the United States Armed Forces by attending memorials, parades, and picnics. On Satuday May 26th, members of 5 families gathered to start Memorial Day Weekend off in a new way; by participating in the May "Scavenger Hunt for Litter" at Morgan Lake Park. The Wallace's, Shaw's, Bialosuknia's, Anjos's, and Fugere's all arrived in the parking lot at Morgan Lake around 11am. Everyone grabbed gloves, a trash bag, and a litter stick (all provided generously by the City of Poughkeepsie Department of Public Works) and worked together as a group picking up garabage and recyclables in the park. 6 bags were filled in about an hour and a half!

To determine what trash is most commonly left behind, I separated mainly the glass, plastic, aluminum, and styrofoam items from the rest of what we picked up. Due to poor scheduling on my part, my mom and brother weren't able to attend the cleanup (guitar lessons at Alto Music in Wappingers Falls come first!). But my mom is awesome so she came after lessons to count and bag the trash seen in the picture above. We collected 9 coffee cups (6 paper with plastic/wax lining, 3 Styrofoam), 19 plastic bottles (water, soda, and juice), 15 glass bottles (11 beer bottles, 4 coffee/juice), 24 aluminum cans (17 beer, 7 soda), 20 worm containers (18 plastic, 2 Styrofoam).

As soon as we got done tying up the last trash bag, a minivan pulled up filled with birthday party balloons and well dressed party hosts. My mom and I told the party hosts that there had been a park cleanup and they said, "Perfect timing! We're here to celebrate a birthday!" They were so thankful for our hardwork and it made me feel so happy to know that the areas by the picnic tables were clean, safe, and ready for a party in the park. Thinking about how great it would be to let community members, the city of Poughkeepsie Department of Recreation, and Mayor Tkazyik know that Morgan Lake Park is thought of as the perfect spot for a birthday party, my mom encouraged me to ask if I could take a photograph of the party tables being set up. The party hosts said, "Sure!" and invited me to come back when the party started. The prize that all of us won at the 2nd Monthly Scavenger Hunt for Litter was knowing that we achieved our goal of making Morgan Lake a clean, safe park environment for children and families to enjoy.

The Bakers, DeFrietas, Isaacs, and Harvey's celebrate a birthday