Presidential Fellows Hike, Clear Roosevelt Island Trail


December 21, 2017

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A group photo before the hike.

On a beautiful Sunday morning, December 3rd, the current fellows met with some of our alumni for a pleasant breakfast to fuel our hiking and clean up efforts along the Potomac River. Armed with gloves, trash bags and a great attitude, we divided into groups as we walked along the trail to our destination - a nice waterfall about an hour in.

As could have been expected, there was lots of trash scattered close to the river banks. Beer cans, plastics, and styrofoam were probably the biggest culprits, but we picked up the occasional discarded fishing rod and clothing.

After high-fiving the waterfall we made our way back to the trail head. All in all, we had about five bags-worth of trash that we happily placed in the designated trash pickup at the beginning of the trail.

This was a wonderful experience for the PAFamily to catch up with our alumni and further our connections. It was also a valuable reminder on the importance of minimizing our waste, not using non-biodegradable material and reusing and recycling when ever possible.

Yesterday the Washington Post published an article about the 3.5 million tons of trash the planet generates per day and the dire situations of trash in landfills and oceans. Please feel free to reach out if you want to learn more about resources and ways to reduce our ecological footprint.

Photos of the trash PAFs collected on the hike.

 

Thank you current fellow Alex Wang and the Community Outreach Committee for organizing the event, and to the alumni, other current fellows, and Advising Team member Mae Cooper who participated!