Glencoe’s Earth Day Clean-Up event on Saturday, April 20 left Glencoe Beach and the Robert Everly Wildflower Sanctuary along Linden and Jackson Avenues was renewed this year thanks to volunteers.
The community clean-up began at 10 a.m. in partnership with the Glencoe Sustainability Task Force and the Friends of the Green Bay Trail. The two-hour event took place on a bright, breezy day with temperatures reported at Glencoe Beach at 9:51 a.m. at 40 degrees.
The rain or shine event was free. Volunteers were asked to bring boots, gloves and buckets to collect debris. Refuse and recycling cans were placed at each cleanup location.
Nate Van Allen, special events and community engagement manager for the Glencoe Park District, said Glencoe Beach volunteers collected 106 pounds of trash last year while Everly volunteers collected 103 pounds.
At least 50 volunteers were registered, Van Allen said.
“It shows they’re invested in the place they live and they care about the places they visit and recreate,” Van Allen said. “We do this to get people in the community involved with taking care of our natural habitats in Glencoe.”
A fun find last year were gym shoes discovered at Everly, left from the Park District’s The Great Mud Run, where kids run through mud in autumn to have fun along a challenge and obstacle course. Concrete chunks and plastic bottles were also found at Everly.
Likely a candidate as this year’s notable find was at Glencoe Beach. Found past the boat house to the north of the public recreational beachfront was a long metal pole on the shoreline carried back to the Adda & Paul Safran Beach House, maybe a good 200 yards away, by two North Shore youth.
Finders (but not keepers!) were Highland Park siblings Sean Collins, a fourth-grader and Jack Collins, a sixth-grader.
Jack reported feeling shocked finding the long pipe which was, “very heavy” to carry back, even with the two of them.
“It was a bit covered in sand and it still had a lot of sand and water in it,” Sean said.
Jack’s and Sean’s father Bobby Collins, Glencoe Park District’s deputy director, identified the pipe item, saying, “that’s got to be seven feet, a seven foot post,” at “50 pounds at least.
“It’s a fence post that washed up on the boating beach,” Bobby Collins confirmed, but the children’s father was not surprised the brothers found something like that,” he said. “Lake Michigan’s an angry place during the storms so occasionally we get some really big things washing up on the beach.”
Bobby Collins reported feeling, “very proud” of Jack and Sean for volunteering.
“Everybody’s got to give back on Earth Day,” he said. “They’re going to come back next year to see if they can even get something better.”
Also attending as volunteers was the newer Glencoe Daisy Girl Scout Troop 47866 led by co-leaders and Glencoe parents Liz Corbett, Carrie Miller-Mygatt and Nicole Segretto.
The girls, kindergarten age, cleaned up the beach with supervision, and brought colorful decorated paper bags with bling for the task.
Teaching children at a young age is something Segretto feels strongly about.
“I feel like young girls just need some confidence and they need to learn to support each other from a really young age,” Segretto said. “And it’s really nice, because Girl Scouts (as an organization) teaches them that.”
Erika Doroghazi, arts and youth program manager for the Glencoe Park District, staffed a table to explain beekeeping to patrons. The district maintains three honey bee hives that produce enough honey to sell at the Takiff Center front desk when there is enough to comfortably share with the public, without impacting the honey friendly home.
“It’s important to teach about the ecological benefits of pollinators,” Doroghazi said.
Meridith Clement of Glencoe and Dorr St. Clair, also of Glencoe, staffed a community table where patrons could assemble free bird nest buffet tubes for birds to find to use in nest building this spring.
Both Clement and St. Clair are trustees with the Friends of the Green Bay Trail.
“We’re celebrating Earth Day and Green Bay Trail is all about providing the natural environment for the birds,” St. Clair said.
Clement said something as simple and useful as a bird nest buffet, made with a cardboard toilet paper core to house a stuffing of nest-friendly items is an example of what families can do at home.
Clement was delighted to see the volunteer turnout at Glencoe Beach.
“This is the biggest group of kids we’ve had,” Clement said. “It is important for them to learn early about taking care of their community. We’re really ecstatic to see the families.”
What does that say about Glencoe?
“They’re tuning in,” Clement said with a smile. “And they’re supporting sustainable practices.”
Karie Angell Luc is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.
