A new green initiative started by Mt.A commerce students
If you have walked through Waterfowl recently, you may have noticed the garbage that has been dirtying the water around the watch tower. A group of Mt.A students working with a new organisation named, Duck, Duck, Go are attempting to change this murky reality. On the afternoon of Oct. 6, they took to the Waterfowl Watch Tower and began their cleanup of the park. The students, all part of the “Arts and Cultural Marketing” commerce course offered at Mt. A, have been working hard since September to start up this initiative, encouraging everyone, from students to community members, to join their cause.
Aidan Hazen, a Mt. A student member of Duck Duck Go, said his classmates walking in Waterfowl have noticed “a lot of garbage” on the pathways and the water, which was the catalyst that inspired the initiative. Through exploration of the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals, the commerce class decided to focus on goals 14 and 15, life below water, which involves conservation and sustaining the ecosystems underwater, and life on land, which focuses on protecting and restoring terrestrial ecosystems. Hazen said how these goals were “important to our class”, and developed into the goal of keeping the parks of Sackville clean with hands-on learning.
Most clean-ups of the park focus on the trails and sides, and cleaning is not permitted to expand into the waters as Waterfowl is a protected wetland. However, Duck Duck Go’s event is different. The initiative was able to gain permission from the Town of Sackville, to send four students into the water near the Watch Tower, where garbage has accumulated. This clean up works towards their goal of creating a better environment, improving waterlife for the muskrats, beavers, the ducks, and the 160+ bird types that can be found in Waterfowl Park.
The project additionally features two newly purchased garbage cans that were painted by Mt.A fine arts students and will be placed in Sackville to promote sustainable waste management. One can was decorated before the event by Megan Lane, while the other was decorated live at the event by fine arts students in the commerce course. The goal of the live decoration was to get the students and Sackville community alike to participate and get involved with the green initiative according to Hazen. The purpose of these new, artsy garbage cans is to be more eyecatching to people. Hazen hopes that it will lead to others cleaning up their own litter and that others will be encouraged to clean up trash they find on their walks.
Duck, Duck, Go has been working hand-in-hand with the town and they hope that it will encourage youth to be more environmentally conscious. The students involved with this class project are predominantly fourth year students, however it might not be the last Sackville sees of it. “We hope that next year’s class will continue this,” says Hazen, with specific goals involving getting more garbage cans in Water Fowl and moving out of the waters and onto a clean up of the actual Watch Tower. Hazen noted that there is a heavy amount of graffiti on the tower, and hopes that future students might focus on a “touch-up”. Either way, the movement encourages everyone to work towards cleaning Sackville and making it a better environment for all.