MANCHESTER – Earth Day is taken seriously around the township and various municipal and school projects made the environment a better place.
Members of the Township Environmental Commission joined several volunteers during their first Earth Day Clean Up.
Environmental Commission Vice Chair Karen Argenti said the event “was very successful and was part of the Barnegat Bay Blitz and Save Barnegat Bay Clean Communities. The event took place at Northampton Boulevard and Montgomery Avenue in Pine Lake Park.”
In years past, the Environmental Commission has been involved in free seedling giveaways to the public and other Earth Day programs.
“Five members of the Commission participated including Commission Secretary Amanda Kristy and her children, several Manchester School Soccer team members, and other volunteers. The township picked up the fruits of our labor,” Argenti added.
The clean up was sponsored by the NJ Department of Environmental Protection’s Barnegat Bay Blitz, Save Barnegat Bay’s Clean Communities project, and Manchester Township Department of Public Works.
“Clean ups help with providing clean water for us to drink and clean air for us to breathe. This was the first Earth Day Clean Up for Manchester Township. It was well attended, gathered lots of garbage, and was very successful,” Save Barnegat Bay Executive Director Britta Forsberg said.
Volunteers signed up on a Google form which saved paper along the way. Environmental Commission members Gabrielle Fox, Genevieve Stavalo, William Foor, and Argenti took part in the effort along with Kisty and her sons Derek and Vincent Kisty.
They were joined by the Save Barnegat Bay Clean Community staff Leigh Simpson, Manchester School Soccer team members, and other volunteers.
“If other Manchester neighborhoods want to do their own clean ups of township land, kindly let the commission know and we can help you organize them. We can also provide notes to students for credit in schools,” Fox added.
Among the litter collected that was picked up by the township, were a stop sign on a pole, a contractor’s sign, old construction tools and equipment, folding chairs, and just plain litter. “We could not remove the bed or other very large items,” Argenti said.
She added, “this is a great activity for Earth Day since Cleanups collect litter along the trails that mix with rain to create polluted runoff, the town receives credit for scheduling volunteer cleanups on their Annual MS4 Stormwater Report.”
The Environmental Commission meets on the fourth Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. in the Courthouse on 1 Colonial Drive and the public is invited to attend meetings.
Habitat Cleans Up
As much as Earth Day is a time to clean up our habitat, Habitat for Humanity was also cleaning up a home.
The High School Habitat for Humanity Club members, under the direction of Advisor Kyle Pecora, set off to a group home in Manchester to conduct a spring clean-up spending their morning sweeping, raking, weeding, planting, and landscaping the grounds and gardens of the home.
Ten student volunteers were on site from all high school grade levels, donating their time to this cause.
Middle School Buzz
In other environmental news, members of Mrs. Laporte’s 7th Grade Science Class at Manchester Township Middle School were buzzing with excitement with their celebration of Earth Day with a lesson on the importance of bees.
Students flitted through three stations where they learned lessons about the beehive structure while building a 3-D model of their own hive; enjoyed a virtual tour of a honeybee hive and a lesson on the importance of caring about and for bees. Their lesson culminated at a station where they planted seeds that will grow specific plants that bees are most attracted to.
