Air Scouts take to the ground to clean up
“The best scenario would be if all visitors to the park did not litter, ensuring this park is a place that is clean and picturesque.”
To commemorate World Environment Day, June 5, Scouts from Harmelia Gardens Air Scout Troop took to Bezuidenhout Park for a community service project.
Held on June 2 at one of Johannesburg’s oldest parks and a heritage site the project saw the troop’s Spitfire patrol improve the area.
Community service is a key aspect of the scouting movement and patrol leaders need to identify an outdoor service project to improve the quality of the environment.
Once an area is identified the leaders and their patrol must carry out the project which require a minimum of 10 hours of work.
“As a regular visitor to the Bezuidenhout Parkrun on a Saturday morning, I noticed there was lots of litter,” said patrol leader, Luke Kojetin.
“Many walkers pick up litter as part of their walk and there is even a Facebook group called Bezpark clean-up that encourages walkers to do a sweep of certain areas before the weekly run.”
“Being able to visit clean green spaces in our city is important and we should take pride in keeping our parks clean.”
At the start of the project, the scouts volunteered as marshals at the Parkrun where they spent several hours picking up litter.
They sorted the rubbish into plastic, paper, glass and other materials before dropping it off at a nearby recycling station.
“Our efforts made a small dent, but in the long run a more sustainable solution will be needed, possibly more bins along the entire Parkrun route as well as regular pickups by the City of Johannesburg,” said Luke.
“The best scenario would be if all visitors to the park did not litter, ensuring this park is a place that is clean and picturesque.”
Bezuidenhout Park has beautiful views of the city as well as one of the oldest houses, originally owned by the Bezuidenhout family who were one of the first settlers of Johannesburg.
Another key feature of the park is the urban food garden, Siyakhana, which trains people to be urban agriculturists and entrepreneurs.
For more news and interesting articles, like Bedfordview and Edenvale NEWS on Facebook or follow us on Twitter
