By:Laura Lane Mervosh
Thanks to youth, marsh cleanup an annual success
A ten-yard dumpster overflowed with old tires, rusted cans, bottles, plastic bags, and even a television. Up ahead in the marsh, a discarded boat, adorned with plants growing through it, waited to be added to the debris. Mud and sand covered people wearing protective plastic gloves carried large plastic bags comparing their finds as they participated in the 6th annual marsh cleanup.
On Saturday, April 21 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., approximately fifty volunteers, including children, high school students, area adults, teachers, employees of BOCES, and people from other parts of Long Island, diligently collected garbage from 64 acres of marshland. Many also investigated the new Nike Environmental Center housed in the Nike School checking out the huge salt-water tanks and the touch tank.
"It was a beautiful day. A lot of people came that I'd never seen before," Matt Dwyer, coordinator of the clean up said.
The clean up, has been a community event since 1996 due to an astute observation by Sarah Dwyer, Matt's daughter. Sarah was only five years old, when her Father took her for a walk on the boardwalk that travels out to the marsh. While Matt walked holding his daughters hand he felt saddened as he noticed how run-down and polluted the marsh had become. When a flock of geese majestically flew over their heads, Sarah came to a sudden halt.
"Daddy, why would any animals want to live back here? It's so dirty," she said.
Dwyer claims that his five year old gave him a wake-up call. To him, the marsh had looked contaminated, but the innocence of a child led him to see it for the environmental catastrophe that it really had become. Dwyer set into action a plan by rallying friends and family and with the help of Dr. Friedman, the Superintendent of Schools; he was able to begin a clean up
"I felt that there was no reason to have a site that is unavailable to the kids," Dwyer added.
. Now an annual event, Dwyer and his children Sarah, 9 and son Eamon, age seven, look forward to the cleanup.
"Getting filthy in all of the mud and sand is probably part of the fun, but, it's also like a treasure hunt for these kids," he said. "All the kids run around the marsh and have a blast."
Each year one of the children finds a mysterious bottle concealing a message. This year's 'message in a bottle' gave the kids an encouraging outlook for the future.
"Whoever finds this, will be blessed with great parties forever," it promised. If this comes to fruition, the volunteers certainly deserve the privilege. Maybe a celebration party at the marsh would be appropriate.
