Smart Girls Volunteer: Keeping Austin Beautiful
Fellow Smart Girl Jessie Williams and I spent last Thursday morning volunteering with Keep Austin Beautiful, a non-profit service organization that aims to make Austin, Texas the cleanest, most beautiful community it can be. Our project this time was helping with their “Adopt-A-Creek” program at Little Walnut Creek in northeast Austin.
The “Adopt-A-Creek” program partners with the City of Austin’s Watershed Protection Department in an effort to get citizens to protect their waterways. The program involves “adopting” a ¼ mile of an Austin creek for at least 2 years, cleaning it up at least 4 times a year, and completing projects to restore the creek habitat. The restoration projects try to reduce the amount of trash entering creeks, improve water quality, and restore habitats along waterways. They encourage citizens to volunteer with all of these initiatives.
We met with Erin from Keep Austin Beautiful, and Al, who “adopted” the Little Walnut Creek at North Acres Park in his neighborhood. Erin and Al provided gloves, trash bags, and tongs. We filled up a lot of trash bags and recycle bags, with Styrofoam, cans, old clothes, plastic wrappers, etc.
Because Al had lived in the neighborhood for a very long time, he had lots of fun facts on the history of Little Walnut Creek, like how high the water level can get up to on the banks and about the Native Americans that used to live there a very long time ago. Erin showed us which of the plants in the area were native, non-native, or invasive. She also showed us how to distinguish poison ivy which we stayed away from successfully! We talked about various things like studying abroad, work, and traveling. While we were cleaning up higher on the bank, a lady saw us from the street and came over to thank us for cleaning up the area. All in all, it was a great way to start out the day. Nature, meeting new people, sharing conversation and learning new things: what more could I ask for from my first experience with Keep Austin Beautiful?
We encourage all Smart Girls out there to get involved in their communities, whether this means volunteering, cleaning up their neighborhoods or adopting creeks. Have you completed any community service projects with your friends lately? Tell us about them in the comments section!
