I woke up early Saturday morning and drove to Poplarville to cover the city’s annual Keep Poplarville Beautiful event.
It was a beautiful day complete with sunshine and a crisp breeze.
As I walked to the gazebo in City Park, I was glad to see such a great turnout.
There were many young adults gathered and they appeared to be excited to clean up their hometown.
In order to take some pictures of people picking up trash, I drove around the community and many were excited to have their picture taken.
As a former Girl Scout, I was proud to see the young Daisys in action at the public library.
I took many pictures of people cleaning up, but the one thing I never saw was a scowl or heard complaints.
For the most part, many young people enjoy spending their Saturday mornings sleeping late or watching cartoons.
And if they do have to get up early, they can be grumpy.
I was when I was a teenager and sometimes still am.
It was heartwarming to see the residents of Poplarville working together to rid the streets of trash and other debris.
Littering is a terrible habit.
It’s not that hard to keep a trash bag in your car or throw your trash away when you reach your destination.
At almost every park I’ve been to, trash receptacles are available.
We may never understand why people litter. My guess would be it’s a combination of laziness or just a complete disregard for keeping our home and Earth beautiful.
I believe that educating our youth about littering is one of the keys to ensure this littering epidemic becomes a thing of the past.
That’s what Laurie Jaufre is doing with this clean up event.
The more our children understand about litter and its harmful effects on our environment, the more likely they are to continue these practices into adulthood.