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For my first community engagement opportunity, I decided to visit a spot very popular with my community. Below the Bunker Hill bridge in Dunmore, is a river. This river was my favorite place throughout middle school. It was where I spent most of my summer days swimming with my friends. Even though it has been years since I was at the spot, I know it has changed and been affected by littering and deforestation. The day I decided to visit the area, I was in disbelief at the trash bags full of garbage scattered along the rocks and rivershore. The trees that used to grow as tall as the highway, now chopped down to serve as parking for local restaurants. How could people disregard an area so much?

From this community engagement, I learned that not everyone cherishes our Earth like they should. A beautiful area has been turned into an easy area to dump trash. Additionally, they are now taking away the natural beauty of trees. The borough has resources that are sent around to take care of roads, water spills, and electrical malfunctions. There should be an area that is sent to take care of our Earth. Send individuals to areas that they know are trash dumping sights and do their best to clean the areas and limit the areas that deforestation is allowed. Living in Dunmore my whole life, created a deeper connection to the land around me. It grew to bother me that I had disregarded one of my favorite spots for so long. Even though my cleanup was only of a small area, I hope that it has helped the area grow and return to live trash free for the time being.

Thinking about all the chapters we have covered in class, specifically this cleanup draws me back to river and water and deforestation. In class, we learned about the connection between different waterways all over the world. The river under the Bunker Hill bridge does not just magically end, it connects to another source. Seeing garbage floating down the river, made me think of the place that it will end up. The oils and chemicals left on the trash can pollute the river and be spread to wherever it continues to travel. Water is not a trash can and we should not abuse it as an easy way out of throwing something away. Deforestation was not an area I was expecting to relate to in this area. When I saw the missing area of trees, that was once so beautiful, it was a shock. If Dunmore is willing to cut down parts of our very few woods, we will become a boring plain town. Lacking the beauty of the trees surrounding the river. While deforestation is a harder area for me to help with, it opened my eyes to how little they mean to individuals.

Overall, I feel that my mini clean up of the river serves a bigger purpose. I did not realize how much my area was affected by pollution and it makes me want to help. Therefore, I believe this community engagement served as a learning experience for me.

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My family has always been ones to recycle here and there. It was never an important thing that was stressed everyday. It was an occasional make sure you put that bottle in the recycling bin not the trash can. With that being said, we had one recycling bin that was filled maybe once a month. We figured at least we are trying when others may not even own a recycling bin. The reason I wanted to talk to my parents about our actions was influenced by our digital footprint section in class. Our footprint is the imprint we leave behind from our actions with water, trash, etc. If I have an influence on this part of my life, I would like to make it the best that I can. From a few conversations, I was able to build an idea around what we can do as a family and make a small change that can help our future.

I first started our conversation with the amount we recycle. While we only had one can, I did not think that was enough. I expressed to my parents that we could be helping our Earth by taking an extra second out of our day to walk to the recycling bin instead of a trash can. My convincing was enough to make my father go to obtain three more recycling bins. We now have two bins outside our back porch and two on the side of the garage. Easy access to remove recycling goods from the house and even a car. Since we have our new bins, I have noticed how much more we have begun to recycle. The bins fill up even faster than before. The little conversation I had with my parents allowed me to make a small change on my footprint with the Earth.

Since I was able to change a dynamic in my household, it makes me curious as to how far I can go with the recycling of materials in my home. Interest in using more earth friendly products has been my next topic. My family and I have been trying different ways to go about how we can grow our earth friendly habits. For example, trying to find what items we can bring into our household that can limit unrecyclable goods and use of water? The second part of our discussion allowed us to explore this option and brainstorm ideas.Therefore, this engagement was one that I believe should be considered in everyone’s households.

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2 recycling bins outside garage

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2 recycling bins on back porch

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This area used to be filled with trees until this past summer when they decided to build a new parking lot.

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This hill was an area I focused on cleaning. This picture was taken about a month after I cleaned up the disposed trash. It has already began to see more littering.

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This is an area located on the side of bridge. It is dead branches and pieces of plants being pilled up.