Ava Walker, a Grade 11 student at Seaton Secondary, organized the student cleanup at Polson Park Friday, Oct. 29 (photo by Liam Verster / Vernon Matters)

By Liam Verster

Interesting items found

Small steps lead to bigger things: Vernon teens clean-up Polson Park

Oct 28, 2022 | 3:00 PM

About a dozen students from Seaton Secondary spent Friday afternoon (Oct. 28) picking up trash at Polson Park in Vernon.

Some of the Seaton Secondary students who spent a few hours Friday, Oct. 28, picking up trash at Polson Park (L to R: Samantha Vajda, Kaydence Aubin, Will Cardew, Ava Walker, Marty Jackson, Rowan Morrison and Catherine Day. (photo by Liam Verster / Vernon Matters)

Organized by Grade 11 student, Ava Walker, the project was dreamed up after she moved to Vernon this past year.

“I knew I wanted to do something that had community involvement impact, and I’m aspiring to be a conservationist, so when my capstone project was decided, I kind of knew I wanted to do something for the community and I knew I wanted to clean up and make an environmental impact somehow,” Walker told Vernon Matters.

“So I gathered some interested students and we founded the Vernon Youth Conservation Society, or VYCS for short, and this is the first of many projects, we’re hoping.”

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Walker said the aim of the effort was combatting climate change.

“This is one small step, and I don’t think things can be done immediately, so getting small steps eventually leads to bigger things.”

The efforts were restricted to the area north of the pond, so the students would not be entering the encampment at the end of the park.

As of 1 p.m., the teens had collected nearly four bags worth of trash, most of which was found near the embankment next to the highway or along the bank of Vernon Creek.

“We’ve been finding a lot of masks, a lot of cups, Tim’s cups, McDonalds cups. We found a few narcotics and drug things, but we aren’t permitted to pick those up so we’ve just been taking pictures and leaving them where they are,” said Walker.

“Other things like spoons, bottlecaps, gloves, things like that.”

The teens found drug paraphernalia during the cleanup, including baggies, vials and needles, but they were given a drug identification sheet and told not to touch those items.

“Whenever we see [the items], we’re taking pictures and when the City of Vernon comes to pick up whatever trash we found, we’re going to let them know where all of the unsafe matter is and they’re going to dispose of it properly.”

While many of the students at the park told Vernon Matters the work was rewarding, one participant felt it was “concerning.”

“There’s so much that you don’t actually expect there to be. Like the amount of cups or plastic pieces or clothes hangers, there’s a lot of clothing too,” Kaydence Aubin told Vernon Matters.

“People don’t realize that it’s actually there, so when you look and go ‘oh, cups and plastic,’ but there’s so much more. So it’s really interesting.”

The students had originally planned to be picking up trash from noon to 5 p.m., though the efforts had to end earlier as City of Vernon staff could only come to pick up the garbage at 2:30 p.m. at the latest. Walker told Vernon Matters they didn’t have a goal for how much they collected, but did say “anything is an accomplishment, any garbage we find is definitely like a small piece of success.”

Walker added that she hopes this is the first of a series of cleanup efforts.

“We’re definitely planning on having future projects and kind of cleaning up whatever needs to be taken care of when it happens,” Walker explained.

“We have a few projects in the works already, and we’re hoping for more community involvement next time because this is kind of our starter project.”

Walker said she hopes to do an event for Environment Week next June, but as of time of publication, she did not have any set plans for future projects.

She also stated she hopes this initiative inspires others in the community.

“The reason we started this was to show that anyone can make an impact, anyone can make a difference and I think with the climate crisis, people feel like it’s so above them and they can’t make an actual difference because they’re just one person,” said Walker.

“But I’m here to kind of show that anyone can make a difference if they have the motivation.”

Kal Tire sponsored the cleanup and Lee Polson of L.S. Polson Lumber LTD provided the students with the equipment needed to pick up the trash around the park.