Hello everyone! My name is Sabrina Thomas and I am a junior at Georgia State University. I have the opportunity of taking a service learning course, which focuses on environmentalism, and what it means to be sustainable. We have discussed philosophical points on “What is nature?” and “Is nature dead?”. After all of these enriching discussions, we have all been matched with our community partners.

I was lucky enough to be matched with Atlanta Creek League. This organization is helping the creeks in Atlanta become clean through friendly competition. This organization is quite new, so I am extremely excited to participate in the beginnings of this group!

Creeks have always been an important part of my life. As a kid, I could sneak through my neighbor’s backyard to get to this small creek that was fresh and crisp during the summer. The same Creek went by my future high school, and by the time I entered it, it was half dead. You could not see the little fish anymore, the creek bed was eroded, and it had trash all around and in it. During my senior year of high school, the school started a club to revitalize it. We petitioned and Gwinnett County’s water service was able to help us install oxygen bubblers, and plant grass to stop erosion and rid it of any trash. I could only see the progress for one semester, but even in that short amount of time, I could see the fish return. 

I want to do this for all of Atlanta. The nostalgia of being able to dip your feet into cool clean water meant everything to me as a kid. Atlanta has a myriad of rich biodiverse rivers, streams, and creeks. It is easier to keep something clean, instead of cleaning it up.

As I said before, Atlanta Creek League is a relatively new organization, and I am beyond excited to see Creeks that only need small adjustments to thrive again. As we have been discussing sustainability within this service learning class, I have realized around me that there can be so many small things everyone can do to create a beautiful and sustainable urban environment.