The students in Susan Bessette’s Accelerated Achievement Academy classes have a ton to brag about after they participated in the California Coastal Cleanup Day on Sept. 20.
At least 90 students, parents, Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts from various schools including Bessette’s school, Rancho San Justo Middle School, Marguerite Maze Middle School and San Benito High School pulled 1,896 pounds of trash – just 104 pounds less than a ton of garbage – from the San Benito Riverbed.
“Even one person can make a difference,” said Bessette in an interview with the Free Lance today. “Even though it’s just one person at a time, that’s where it starts and that’s where it matters.”
The volunteers gathered on the Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon to pick up trash at the San Benito Riverbed site owned by Graniterock where Bessette has brought students for at least four years.
This year the students cleaned two abandoned homeless camps. The fact that this year might be an El Niño year – which means more rain – is yet another reason her students are out collecting trash from the riverbeds on the weekends, she said.
“El Niño – it floods and all that junk gets carried down the riverbed,” Bessette said.
The number of pounds of trash collected Saturday will be added to the total count for the amount of garbage collected across the state as part of the California Coastal Cleanup Day.
“The numbers are staggering,” Bessette said. “There were almost 200 tons of trash statewide removed from the waterways and beaches. It’s just unbelievable. It’s great.”
Bessette is planning another cleanup day from 9 a.m. to noon in a few weeks at a second Graniterock property. The date of the cleanup is currently undecided. For more information, call Bessette at (831) 636-4460 ext.155.
