Every year, Worcester's parks and green spaces get a good spring cleaning thanks to the hundreds of volunteers who take part in the annual citywide
Earth Day clean-up day. Organized by the Worcester Regional Environmental Council, this year's 61 clean-up sites attracted 700 volunteers, and we were
among them!
Teaming up with students from the University Park Campus School (UPCS) in their bright yellow Earth Day T-shirts and with members of the
Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), we headed across Main Street with our sights set on all the trash that had accumlated in the pond at Crystal Park
(a.k.a. University Park). Armed with trash bags, gloves, rakes, waders, and a nifty dredging tool consisting of a long pole attached to a
recovered milk crate, we began plucking debris from the water and had the place looking pretty spiffy by the time all was said and done. The UPCS kids were
fascinated with our waders and couldn't wait to try them out, while we had plenty of adventure plodding our way through the weeds at the pond's eastern tip to
reach all the debris trapped within them. It was a lot of work, but none of us seemed to mind being outdoors on such a beautiful sunny day.
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