An Earth Day Chore

SAVE volunteers filled 60 small trash bags in three hours during their second annual cleanup of land bordering the parking lot of Saugus Middle-High School

By Mark E. Vogler

Ryan Duggan says it isn’t easy cleaning up after the drive-by pigs who toss their trash out of their car windows as they speed northward on Route 1 or the litter bug motorists who make a special detour into the parking lot outside the Saugus Middle-High School which faces the highway.

“We were going seven layers deep on that hill,” said Duggan, one of the 14 volunteers who turned out for three hours of cleanup duty last Saturday (April 13) as the Saugus Action Volunteers for the Environment (SAVE) completed its second annual event in the area behind the Middle-High School.

“You’d pick up one layer and then you would have another one, and another one …” he said.

“But you can tell we made a big difference here today. We filled close to 60 bags. And that’s more than last year. And it’s made quite a visible difference, as you can see,” he said. Duggan is a SAVE Board of Director.

A car bumper, a debit card, a badly damaged pager, loads of candy wrappers, a lot of “fireball” nips, empty French fry boxes from McDonald’s, empty plastic water bottles, socks, numerous tennis balls, paper and plastic cups and a bunch of single use plastic bags – the same kind that SAVE lobbied the town to ban several years ago – made up the waste stream for the Saturday cleanup.

SAVE Treasurer Mary Kinsell, who helped to organize this year’s event, said she was inspired by the work of the small group. “I feel like we really nailed it today,” Kinsell said.

“We certainly surpassed last year’s effort. But Scott Brazis, director of recycling, authorized our project on that site and supplied us with bags and gloves. I wanted to give DPW credit for facilitating the project,” she said.

SAVE Co-President Stephanie Shalkoski declared that the cleanup was “a great way to demonstrate good stewardship of our planet.”

“It was a lot of fun last year, we made a big difference in the area in just a few hours, and it felt good for SAVE to take ‘action’ to help the community,” she said.

Participating in this year’s event with Duggan, Kinsell and Shalkoski were: SAVE Vice President Margery Hunter, SAVE Board member Nancy Prag, SAVE Board member Mary Robblee, Dick Lynch, Maureen Whitcomb, Donna Manoogian, Karen Speziale, Sharon Genevese, Laura DeBenedictis, Isabella Vasi and Zenera Shahu. Vasi and Shahu are copresidents of the Saugus Middle-High School Environmental Club, which they recently created.

Earth Day will be observed next Monday, April 22. Earth Day Week for 2024 begins on Sunday (April 21) and will last through Saturday (April 27).