Local residents pitch in for the Earth

BY STEPHANIE BRIEN
Journal Times

Saturday, April 26, 2008 9:58 PM CDT

RACINE — From the banks of the Root River to inside the State Street Train Depot, area residents celebrated Earth Day on Saturday by cleaning up the environment and learning how to become more ecologically friendly.

At least a dozen organizations held events Saturday in conjunction with Earth Day, which was officially Tuesday. “You get more awareness when you have several groups working together,” said Melissa Warner, organizer of Weed Out! Racine. While she knows some people only volunteer because of Earth Day, that doesn’t bother her.

“It’s better than not at all,” Warner said. “Sometimes people come Earth Day for the first time and then come again.”

Colonial Park

Dawn Bontempo and her daughters Francesca, 7, left, and Izabella, 9, pick up trash in Clayton Park. Many volunteers worked in parks along the Root River on Saturday as one of the community’s Earth Day-related activities. (Photo by Mark Hertzberg, Journal Times)

Walking through the Colonial Park woods, JoAnn Franzke’s task Saturday was to help eliminate garlic mustard seed from the park.

“It’s invasive,” Franzke, 68, explained. “The point is to keep it all native plants.”

Franzke was working with Weed Out! Racine to help maintain plant biodiversity in the parks.

With burs attached to her jacket and pants, the retired Racine teacher continued to pull the invasive plants from the ground. When she found a large cluster, she marked it with a small yellow flag to let others know. She couldn’t get it all, but she did fill up one garbage bag full of plants.

They were then put into bags labeled: “Invasive, alien species. Do not compost. Place in landfill.”

She has worked with the organization several times in the past and can see where the organization has helped make a difference. That feels good, she said.

Root River

Along the Root River, the Zach family of Racine made a game out of collecting garbage. It was 100 points for a bottle and 50 points for a plastic bag. By the end of the day, 5-year-old Connor was the “king of the trash,” his parents said. Steve and Sharon, Connor’s parents, are hoping that he comes away from the day with more than a title.

“We want him as he gets older to volunteer more and (know) it’s not good to pollute,” Sharon said. The family volunteered through Steve’s employer, SC Johnson, and spent Saturday morning walking along the river.

“We have this nice park so it’s good to give back,” Steve said.

Reaching into one of the family’s two black garbage bags, Connor pointed out his treasure for the day – a basketball. Instead of throwing it in the trash they could possibly recycle it, he said.

Racine Eco-Fair

Inside the former State Street train station at the Racine Transit Center, Petra Dougherty looked at ways to make her Kenosha home more environmentally-friendly.

“We feel strongly about going green so it was a good resource,” said Dougherty, 24. She was at the Racine Eco-Fair with her husband and brother. There were about 150 people who stopped by Saturday, according to organizers

Walking out the door after a tour of the station’s approximately 20 exhibits, Dougherty said was going to go home and read her many pamphlets. One pamphlet that struck her in particular was about developing a rain garden outside her house. It explains how to plant a garden outside a rain spout so it can be self sufficient and not use excess water. She already recycles, eats organic and brings her own bags to the grocery store, but she wants to do more. Dougherty called it all part of her “de-plasticization of society.”

About 560 shoes collected

The Cesar Chavez Community Center collected 14 garbage bags full of tennis shoes Saturday to be shipped to Nike and recycled. The shoes will be recycled into new sports surfaces such as playground basketball courts and running tracks.

There were about 20 pairs of shoes in each bag, estimated Duncan Cortez, Chavez youth services coordinator. That would be about 560 shoes.

“It’s a natural tie,” Cortez said about the center working to collect shoes for sports surfaces.

The shoes will be sent to Milwaukee and then to Nike, where the soles will be ground up and recycled.

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