Capstone Presentation

of
Clean the Green
By: Kali Neydon, Mehtap Yercel, Clarissa Schumbrecht, Abigail McGraw

Mission Statement
The Clean the Green project is
focused on cleaning up the trash,
installing an environmental safety
sign, and educating the community
about the importance of protecting
and preserving the environment.

The Problem
The Elizabeth River is
polluted and the
surrounding trees of that
area has carvings and
writing on them. Trash can
be seen on the paths
around the park and even
in the river itself. The
carvings and writing on the
trees poison them, thus
damaging and potentially
killing the tree altogether.

The Problem (Cont.)

Additionally, the Carolanne
Farms Park at the Elizabeth
River area is full of litter,
and there is only one trash
can present in the area.
One trash can is not
enough for the whole park
itself. In addition, the trash
can is not frequently used,
and nobody is around to
take out the trash already
in the trash can.

Solution
We wanted to solve the problems facing the Carolanne
Farms Park by educating the community about what is
happening within their community park. We planned
on hosting a clean-up to at the park with anyone who
wanted to participate in the event, and by helping the
city purchase a sign in hopes that it would educate
the community even further about the importance of
protecting waterways and wildlife.

The Planning
Each of us were given a task to research background
information in relation to our issue.
Kali was given the task to research about the impacts of
writing on trees, Abby for the cost of trash cans, Mehtap for
the ERP, and Clarissa for the impact of trash on environments.
Scheduling and contact played a major role, for we had to
know who was in charge of what, which led us to figuring out
who to contact.

The Clean-Up
The clean-up was the first part of our project. Previous to the
clean-up, we made a flier inviting the people in the neighborhood
to come help out.
We also invited the city and Ms. Marjorie Mayfield and
councilwoman Dr. Ross-Hammond from the Elizabeth River Project
to come clean-up with us.
We had 17 volunteers show up (including ourselves).
We filled 12 trash bags full of trash, we found 2 chairs (one plastic
and one metal) in the Elizabeth River, and we also found a lot of
chicken wire laying around the park.
Additionally, we helped the Elizabeth River gain 4 more members!
Lastly, the Elizabeth River project invited us to their last executive
board meeting on June 2nd, at 3 pm.

Elizabeth River Project

The Elizabeth river project is a
non-profit leading community
efforts to restore the
environmental health of this
great harbor river while
affirming her value to our port
economy. Their goal is to
restore the Elizabeth River to
its original state by 2020.

The City Sign

We will be helping the city purchase a sign for the park that
will include pictures and details about the park and how you
can improve the environment and prevent it from becoming
polluted to begin with.
The sign will include information such as how to properly
dispose of fishing line, how to make sure wildlife is kept safe,
and what common problems and there solutions in the
watershed area.

The City Sign (Cont.)

As for raising money, we collected $115 from donations
made at our clean-up, we hosted a hat-day day at our
school where we raised $111, and we collected $80 from
donations made at the last executive board meeting of the
Elizabeth River Project, which was held on June 2nd. This
makes $306 in total, as opposed to our original goal, which
was $300.
To build the sign, we need at least $300 more, which makes
the sign $600 in total, so we hope to get the rest of the
money from the grant provided by our school.

Awards

The Elizabeth River Project has

awarded us for our cooperation
with them and for our actions to
further clean the eastern branch
of the Elizabeth River.

Kemps Landing/Old Donation

School was already a river star
school, but our project has now
upgraded our status to a model
river star school.

There are 178 river star schools in

total, and only 89 of them are
model river star schools(including
us!). We are the first school to
earn this award this year.

Award credits to Ms. Robin Doblar.

The certificate and the metal awarded to

our school by the Elizabeth River Project.

Educating the Community

We gave a speech at the clean-up to the members of the
community that showed up about the harms of pollution
on the environment and water ways. We also gave the
same speech to Carolanne Frams Civic League.
The Elizabeth River Project also gave a speech about their
job as the ERP and what they do to help the environment.
The city talked about their sign that will further educate
the community about protecting the water ways in hopes
to reduce the amount of trash being left in the
environment.

Resources and Costs

For the clean-up part of our project, we required tools
such as rakes, trash-grabbers, shovels, gloves and
trash bags. Most of the tools were provided by the
City, except for the gloves which we brought
ourselves. Other resources include the volunteers who
helped us.
The only cost required for our project is the cost of the
City's sign, which we have raised enough money for!

Project Issues
Throughout our project we encountered many problems.
Our first problem was that we had to change half of our
project half way through the year. We had originally planned
to install trash cans around the park, but the city would not
allow it.
Because of this, we did not know what to do; however, later
on we talked with our teachers and Mr. Moore from the city
who helped us come up with a more sustainable and
beneficial project than what was originally planned.

Project Issues (Cont.)

We also had many problems with communication and
scheduling. We had to communicate many people including
the city, the Elizabeth River Project, our teachers and staff
members from our school. We were confused at times, and it
was hard to keep up with, but in the end we solved this
problem by checking our group email every day.
Lastly, one of our major problems was procrastination. We
had a great tendency to leave things to the last second, and
in order to solve this problem, we all had to give it our best
effort and try harder to get going again.

Testing the Solutions

We tested our solutions based on the amount of trash
we cleaned up at our clean-up, and also based on the
amount of money we raised for the City's sign.
Our clean-up was a great success as we cleaned 12
bags of trash, which is roughly 120 pounds of trash,
including two chairs and lots of chicken wire.
We are also proud of the amount of money we have
raised for the sign. Our goal was to raise $300, and
we have gone over that to raise $306!

Conclusion
In conclusion, our project consisted of two parts, first part being
our clean-up at Carolanne Farms Park, and the second part
being our efforts to raise $600 for the City's signs.
We impacted the community by cleaning up trash from it, which
lessens the amount of pollution in that area. And we are also
impacting the community by educating the community
members in that area about harms of trash pollution on the
environment, and also about protecting the waterways and
wildlife.
The short-term affects of our project was that we cleaned up the
litter at Carolanne Farms Park, and the long-term affects of our
project is that we are helping the City install a sign that will be
there many years after to continue educating the community.

Recommendations
Our Capstone clean-up is a very do-able project that
anyone can do to better their community!
This project requires a minimum of 3 months to prepare
and actually do everything, and you will need tools
such as gloves, trash bags, shovels, rakes and trash
grabbers.
If you would like to do a project like this, we would
definitely recommend for you to not procrastinate on
your work.
This is a project that requires a lot of contact with many
people, so make sure that you are able to keep track of
what is being sent and received.

Recommendations (Cont.)
It is crucial that you do your research before the project to
avoid any problems, as well as understanding what it is you
would want to focus your project on.
Always be there for your group. Teamwork is the key to
success.
Be prepared for any outcome that the group faces. It is
important to remain flexible when it comes to conflicts with
your project plans.
Make sure to have lots of fun!

Last Words
Our Capstone Project was many things. It was difficult,
frustrating, hard, fun, and most importantly, very
educating. This experience taught us many important
lessons about communication, cooperation and
teamwork that we are certain we will all carry throughout
our lives. We are glad that we were able to make an
important contribution to the community, and that we
were able to help the environment. Even though at times
our project was overwhelming at times, we are glad to
have had a chance to go through this experience. We
believe that in the end, we have been successful
together as a team!
Sincerely,
Clean the Green Team