Author: sthomas178

Garner Creek Clean Up

by sthomas178

  

 

Atlanta Creek League has allowed me to set up a clean-up of my local creek. It is always so exciting to be able to do hyper-grassroots events. This creek has been a key part of my childhood, I can remember the cold water on the hot summer days. Recently, my creek has undergone some extreme construction. While this construction is to help the ecosystems within the creek, it still caused a big strain on it (funny how that works?). Old construction materials and plastic litter the creek, and I am so excited to help this nostalgic area.

One thing that has really surprised me about all of this is the sheer amount of people that are dedicated to helping the wildlife in Gwinnett County. Gwinnett County has three officials that focus on the creeks and rivers of the region, and their overall health. I have contacted all of them but unfortunately have not heard back. It would be very interesting to meet with them. Contacting people to help with this event has been exhausting, and more challenging than expected. A lot of these people have extremely busy schedules, and I have struggled with finding a certain time to meet with them to discuss my event. 

Even though it has been chaotic trying to contact a lot of different organizations to help out, I have been very much supported by a lot of different organizations. Of course, Atlanta Creek League has helped me immensely with certain people to contact. Hannah, the founder of ACL, is an amazing person and an extremely altruistic person. I have struggled a lot with getting in contact, and she has helped me immensely. She also has been kind enough to add Garner Ceek to the Atlanta Creek League website. Garner Creek Club, is the high school club that helps out the creek once and a while. It is interesting to work with them because when I was in high school, I participated in the exact same club. It was so nostalgic and pleasing to me that people are continuing to help this creek out. 

Overall, I am extremely excited to host my event! It is scheduled to be the day after Earth Day, and I am excited to hand out my project to volunteers. After this event, I would really like to continue to work with Atlanta Creek League. They are such an amazing organization and I could not use my time better. For all of you that are reading this, get in contact with them! They are enthusiastic and amazing if you would like to give back to a community. Attached below are some photos of the construction trash, and the creek itself. I hope you get inspired to check out your own creek!

Introduction: Sabrina Thomas

by sthomas178

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.