BIDDEFORD — Passers-by may notice cleaner streets near the high school and downtown today, thanks to a concerted clean-up effort completed by a group of students.
The first “Address the Mess” community service project started outside Biddeford High School Thursday afternoon. The idea for the event came from Linda Hardacker, Community Development Coordinator, and BHS junior Ryan Fecteau felt it was a good opportunity for the school’s Civil Rights team to get involved in the community.
“One of our ideas was to build a house, but it was impossible during the amount of time we had,” said Fecteau. “We wanted to do a smaller, but bigger project; simple, but permeate through the city of Biddeford.”
More than 125 BHS students collected trash that citizens had left on the streets. The project was carefully planned out and a map was drawn to show the area they would cover. The route started on Maplewood Avenue and onto Main Street. At the corner of Bradbury and Main streets, the group split into two groups. One group covered Bradbury Street, Cutts Street and Elm Street, while the second group continued down Main Street, Hill Street and Bacon Street.
“Our goal is to make our city a little cleaner, a little nicer, at the end of the day,” English teacher Heather Tremblay said to the group before they began cleaning.
The two groups re-connected on Elm Street and continued down May Street to end back at Biddeford High School. The students and volunteers ended the day with a barbecue to thank everyone for their help. Students said they felt good about themselves and what they were doing for their city.
“I think it’s important to show the general public in Biddeford that teenagers do care about the city and are willing to work positively to change the environment,” BHS senior Mary Kircher said.
Kircher added that she was very disappointed how so many people littered.
“Many people don’t care about their city and decide to litter,” she said. “If nobody littered on the streets, ”˜Address the Mess’ would be unnecessary.”
While picking up trash, the students received many ”˜thank-yous’ from citizens who were driving by.
Fecteau is hoping to continue “Address the Mess” as an annual project for students, but he is hoping that more community service groups will get involved. He also hopes that the community will realize that students want to protect the environment and their city.
“This is showing what BHS is all about,” said Fecteau. “I hope the community recognizes that students are helping out the city. When it’s referendum time in November, the city will think back to this day and see that we took the time to clean the city. It shows that students really care.”
— Journal Tribune intern Kayla Binette can be reached at kbine151@mail.endicott.edu.
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