Rawlins Daily Times, Jerret Raffety• Middle-schoolers, teachers and CCHEC staff picked up trash in honor of Earth Day.
By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer
Through the light haze that spread its blanket across the city Tuesday morning, passersby could see the faint dots of people carrying large black sacks and moving through the empty acreage between Rawlins Middle School and U.S. Highway 287.
On Earth Day, the staff at the Carbon County Higher Education Center teamed with Rawlins Middle School sixth-graders to clean a stretch of Rawlins littered with, well, litter.
Divided into small platoons of a larger litter army, the kids scattered themselves throughout the trash-entwined, prickly bushes. Their project extended east from the school’s campus, stretched across the south end of the ball fields to Murray Street, and stopped just west of the highway.
“These gloves are going to be red by the time we’re done!” said sixth-grader Ashlee Hicks, who was enjoying the event with friend Tabitha Smith. They were wearing turquoise surgical gloves that kept getting snagged on the unforgiving branches.
Adorned in jeans and sweatshirts to celebrate the day, the higher education staff chatted amongst themselves and with the kids. Exclamations about the amount of McDonald’s paper goods and plastic grocery bags drifted through the air.
“It’s amazing how much people litter,” one student said to no one in particular.
CCHEC Director Dave Throgmorton answered him. “Sometimes they don’t mean to, you know. Sometimes the wind gets it and carries...” His voice drifted away with the breeze.
Simone Franklin and Amanda Meis, both students at Rawlins Middle School, were enjoying the time away from class. “We don’t have to do work,” they said. Soon, they would eat lunch and then go to a few afternoon classes, including choir, art, physical education and Spanish.
Nearer to the school was Stephanie Brandner’s first-hour language arts class. Each student carried a sack and looked like mini Santa Clauses from afar.
“They’re just like little recycling trolls,” Brandner said.
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