this morning, richard and i put on our work clothes and gloves, and went out with a rake and a load of plastic bags to clean the rubbish from the riverbank and towpath near our house.
my original plan was to make this a neighbourhood event, and to hang up posters in the local starbucks to recruit help. but i hit a lot of resistance to this from most everyone i mentioned the idea to. my uk family said the towpath seemed clean to them. did we really need to even do this? richard was worried no one would turn up and i'd be disappointed. my friend was concerned that people would see me as the pushy newcomer american, coming to "save the day." i got as far as designing the poster. but all of the feedback seemed fair enough to me, so after a lot of deliberation, i recruited just richard, who is very patient with my many hare-brained schemes, and we set out on our own.
two and a half long hours later, we had collected 14 bags of rubbish from the one-mile stretch of the thames nearest our house. while we were cleaning, people walked by and commented on our work. two older women asked what we were collecting. a man and his son said we were doing good work. and a small group of hikers said "this is why the river looks so clean and pretty here." i'm not sure we deserved this praise since this was the first time we have done this, but it confirmed for me that people appreciated what we were trying to do.
my back is sore, but i'm glad we did it. next year, i'm determined that i'm going to invite the neighbours.
good on ya Girl! *We* would have been out there with you, were it possible. I think you should invite the neighbours next time, and point out how many bags of rubbish you collected the previous outing.
nice one - hilsen/m & s & m
Posted by: Michael Murray | April 24, 2005 at 07:47 PM