North Miami Beach’s Spring Teen Cleanup features Water Education on Wheels

It may be the squeaky wheel that gets the grease, but in this case it was the teenager volunteers at this year’s Teen Spring Cleanup that received water education on wheels.

Teens had a ton of fun and picked up nearly a ton of litter during the City of North Miami Beach’s Annual Teen Spring Cleanup, which was held on the first Saturday in March. The ninth annual event focused not only on litter pick up, but also on educating future generations about water and environmental awareness.

Karl Thompson, Public Services Assistant Director developed the concept of water education on wheels as a way to incorporate water and environmental education into the event. “It seemed like such a natural way to get the volunteers aware of how important our water and environmental resources are,” said Thompson. “We called it our version of the FCAT, with the acronym standing for the Florida Conservation Awareness Test.”

Coincidentally, the official Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test was given the week following Teen Spring Cleanup. “It was a play on words, but our version of the FCAT, with its environmental focus, incorporated valuable lessons as to how the choices they make every day can impact our planet.”

Following an early morning registration, the teenagers rode school buses to their pre-determined litter pick up zones. The water education on wheels took place on the buses heading to and from their volunteer work sites. The “hook” used to keep the kid’s attention was that there would be environmental- and water conservation-related questions asked to all the raffle prize winners. If their raffle number was called at lunch, the student would need to be able to correctly answer the water or environmental question before being awarded the prize. With three I-Pods, movie tickets and I-Tune gift cards up for grabs, the kids listened intently.

“We had an amazing turnout this year,” said City Manager Kelvin L. Baker. “Thanks to the recruiting efforts of Hands on Miami and our city staff, more than 350 teenagers volunteered for the event and picked up over 1,580 pounds of litter off the streets of North Miami Beach.”

The teenagers joined forces with the city’s Public Services Department to conduct a clean sweep of North Miami Beach, which includes 17 Neighborhoods encompassing a 5.2 square mile area. For their efforts, the students earn 5 community service hours applicable toward graduation requirements.

The success of the water education on wheels approach was easily duplicated for the city’s Take our Daughters and Sons to Work Day event at the end of April. While the children were touring the city facilities, water and environmental points were discussed in route and prizes were awarded to those who could correctly answer the questions.