volunteering
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At Stonewall Farm again

13/05/09 19:16
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Giving back to the community is a big part of Green Keene Teens and what we stand for. We are regularly volunteering at Stonewall Farm in Keene. Each of our volunteers usually spends about two hours working.

Last Saturday, May 9th, Alishia, Lily, Carolynn and I went to volunteer at Stonewall farm. This was our second (non-event) volunteering as Green Keene Teens. We prepared the garden for Stonewall’s art auction that evening, raked, and stacked wood.

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The first Saturday Green Keene Teens volunteered was April 11th. The three girls that joined me on that day were Olivia, Jackie, and Laura. On that occasion we raked huge piles of leaves and brought them to the compost.

By volunteering we not only want to benefit ourselves but also help others. We give back for what we take. Helping others is not only good karma but it is good way to connect with the people who give and receive the help.

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Green Up Keene Day

21/04/09 19:24
Mina
On Saturday, GKT participated in Green Up Keene Day, an event that called for the citizens of Keene to “Green Up” the city, or in other words, make our city cleaner. Although only six of us (including me and Alisha‘s father) showed up, I would say that we got a lot of work done, and we definitely made a difference.

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The participating GKT members ended up picking up garbage from around 8:00 to 11:00 near Beaver Brook. First, we went to Carpenter St. and the field there. That wasn’t too bad, just a lot of broken beer bottles (as well as some whole ones with mysterious fluid inside) and small articles of trash. But WOW! The sheer number of cigarette butts disturbed me. They were everywhere! So many people smoke, and though it’s a disgusting habit, it’s tolerable if they care for the butts properly. Put the cigarette out on the ground, and then stick it back in the package until you get home! I also think it would be great if we had more trash-can-ash-tray-things.

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After we thought we were done with Carpenter field, we went to a different area behind the Beaver Brook Apartments. When we got there the scene was appalling, there was all kinds of trash strewn about. We found tires, car batteries, Christmas lights, unidentifiable plastics, empty soda cans, beer bottles, candy wrappers, heavily rusted metal pipes and bars, nauseating scented washcloths, of course more cigarette butts, and a simply revolting amount of other debris. Why would people litter the area with waste that could easily be taken care of by walking an extra 50 feet to a garbage can? How could they not care about the safety of the organisms depending on the land, or even their own children? If that car battery had been old enough, the chemicals could have contaminated the waters. Rubber tires don’t decompose naturally and they could be made into playground equipment for your kids if they’re recycled. I truly believe that our community needs an immediate wake-up-call and everyone needs to be more aware of the effects of their actions.

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All in all, it was kind of fun. We got a couple of laughs and it felt really great to know that we did something good for our local environment. A tremendous thank you goes to Dan, Alisha’s father, for not only providing us with the transportation but also helping us pick up rubbish. Without him, it would have been extremely difficult to have done a lot of the work we were able to do (especially lifting the heavier stuff). Personally, I hope we can do something like it again with maybe three times as many contributors.



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Sap Gathering

04/04/09 19:47
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Green Keene Teens volunteered at Stonewall Farm March 28th, for their Sap Gathering event. All twelve of our members volunteered!

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(Allie & Brea)

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(Mina & Lucy & Beth)

We directed cars to the parking areas, from 8:50 to 2:00. A few of us were bucket fillers, from 12:00 to 4:00. There were hundreds of people at the event, and we were happy to be able to help out.

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