Every year, our local Optimist service club organizes a community clean up. We got the flyer and a garbage bag in our mailbox a few weeks ago and after asking, “Why did we get a garbage bag in the mailbox?” Ellie was keen to participate. So Saturday morning, we headed out to clean up the ditch along the front of the property.
It is so annoying to me how much litter people pitch onto the side of the road. I’ve done this clean up a few times and every year is the same. Coffee cups. Cans. Takeout bags. Wrappers.
Why?
This is my first time doing a clean up with Ellie, and I am so proud of her. She climbed up and down the ditch. Picked up trash. Pulled the wagon.
And she understood that littering is wrong. This is not the right way to treat the Earth.
We finished from our driveway to the corner–one small section of the 2km of roads that border the farm. We filled one bag of garbage and one bin of recycling.
It was progress. Not so much for our property or for the Earth as for Ellie… and me too. What she’s learning, the way she thinks and the person she is give me hope and motivate me to keep trying to improve the world.
Home on 129 Acres 
Such a great, concrete way to impress these lessons upon her mind. And your verge looks so much nicer!
My daughter told me the story of an incident that I don’t remember. We used to live in a small town about 20 minutes out of the city, and there was a narrow highway between them. One day I was driving the kids towards the city and she threw something out the window, a wrapper or something. Apparently I used a farm’s driveway to turn the car around and I drove back, and made her get out, find the thing on the grassy side of the highway and bring it back in the car. I don’t remember this, but it was a memorable lesson for her and her brothers!
What a story! I love how moments like that stick with kids. I hope that this does the same for Ellie.