LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Earth Day is on Saturday, April 22, and environmentalists around the world are encouraging everyone to practice eco-friendly habits. In a challenge to clean the environment, on Saturday, The Green Samaritan Group walked along a bike trail in North LAS Vegas picking up pieces of trash. Organizers say the Earth Day event was an opportunity to take pride in the earth.
“People see trash and they treat it like it’s part of the landscape,” said David McClenton, the founder of the Green Samaritan Group. “That trash can end up in our sewers, our streams, our lakes and eventually our ocean and then it becomes a huge problem.”
McClendon wants to prevent that from happening. Starting with the trail cleanup 5K, he’s challenging everyone to pick up five pieces of trash every day. He said that calculates to 35 pieces of trash a week, 140 pieces of trash a month, which adds up to 1,325 pieces of trash annually that an individual can prevent from going into the sewers.
“It’s individual acts like that that make a collective impact,” McClendon said.
This year is the 54th annual Earth Day observance. The theme is “Invest in the Planet.” However, the Green Samaritan said the day is an opportunity to invest in health.
The non-profit hosts a school gardening program within the Clark County School District. Students at Lee Antonello Elementary in North Las Vegas are growing lettuce, red cabbage, strawberries, chard, kale, artichokes, broccoli, corn, flowers and plants.
“Kids who don’t like broccoli, end up liking broccoli, because they’re growing it themselves, they’re tasting it, and it’s fresh,” McClenton said. “Fresh food tastes totally different than processed food or food that’s been sitting on the shelf.”
McClendon plans to expand the school gardening program as more STEM projects like his are sprouting up in the Valley.
Ahead of Earth Day, the national non-profit Green Our Planet hosted the largest student-run gardening program in the country on Friday in Summerlin. More than 600 student farmers from 60 Clark County School District harvested and sold produce and crafts with all proceeds returning to the schools to amplify and preserve the school garden programs.
