By Kate McCullom
Earth Day is a great holiday to remember how much our planet means to us and how important it is to take care of the Earth. When I was a child, Earth Day was always a day to celebrate nature and be thankful for Mother Nature. It is easy to focus on all the issues in the environment, but I think it is important to remember to be thankful for the beauty of nature.
When I was younger my neighbors and I would say our thanks to Mother Earth by going for a walk around our neighborhood and picking up all the pieces of trash we found. Coming home from school having learned all about Earth Day, we wanted to make a difference on our own. We rushed home and shared with our parents our mission to pick up every piece of trash that dared to enter our neighborhood. Our parents agreed it was a great idea and gave us each a trash bag and sent us on our way to clean the neighborhood. I vividly remember running around in the sunshine trying to be the one to find the most trash, astonished by all the little things that had been discarded on our streets. We found bottles, fast-food wrappers, random pieces of plastic, and all different kinds of trash. We all filled our trash bags with litter, running around, and calling out if we found something particularly interesting. It was a great way to spend time outside, get some exercise, and make our neighborhood a cleaner place.
Although cleaning trash from our neighborhood might not fix all the issues we face to save our planet, it gave my friends and I an understanding of the importance of protecting nature. It was a great way to introduce us to caring for our planet and taught us not to litter and to take care of the environment we were growing up in. Picking up trash in my neighborhood is also a memory that has stuck with me because it was fun, and it made me feel like I was helping the planet. Protect our earth and please do not litter.