Students have many options when it comes time to choose how they want to spend their free time after school closes. For most, grabbing a trash bag and heading out to clean up the environment isn’t one of them, unless you are local fourth grader Connor James (C.J.) Young.
C.J., a student at Schultz elementary in Delaware. C.J., a student at Schultz Elementary in Delaware, wrote an essay on cleaning up the Earth that inspired him to do his bit.
“I studied about the environment and just became interested in the earth and the oceans,” he said.
C.J. has been working for the past year to clean up his neighborhood. C.J.
C.J. goes out when the weather permits. C.J. goes out once a week to pick-up trash that consists mainly of paper, cups, and metal cans. He said that plastic bags are the most common item he sees.
As for the biggest item he’s pulled from the woods, C.J. C.J. said that he would need a tent and the stakes that were still in the ground to make that happen.
While he doesn’t keep track of all the trash he picks up, C.J. said his last bag weighed in at “just over 10 pounds.”
C.J.’s goal to help clean up the earth one piece of trash at a time has not gone unnoticed. After his grandmother, Cathy Merrell, sent out emails to various organizations to let them know about C.J.’s mission, the Keep Delaware County Beautiful Coalition reached out and invited him to the Delaware Public Health District office, where he was given a pair of heavier gloves, trash bags and a litter grabber.
“It means so much when residents take the initiative to clean up our community,” said Jenifer Way-Young, Keep Delaware County Beautiful coordinator. “It takes all of us to keep our community clean, whether you’re picking up litter like C.J. or preventing it by making sure you properly dispose of trash.”
“If you ever find trash, please pick it up because it really helps the environment,” C.J. added. “Every little piece of trash helps, even the smallest piece. So please help clean up.”
For county residents interested in helping clean up their neighborhood, Way-Young said they can follow in C.J.’s footsteps and pick up trash in their free time, organize a group cleanup event, or attend an upcoming spring cleanup event at the following locations: downtown Delaware during Main Street Delaware’s First Friday celebration on April 1, Delaware State Park from 10 a.m. to noon on April 9, downtown Delaware from 10 a.m. to noon on April 23, and Alum Creek State Park from 10 a.m. to noon on April 30.
Way-Young can be reached by residents via email at to request supplies or information about how to organize their cleanup. [email protected]
“We all have an opportunity to make a positive impact in our community,” Way-Young said. “After Keep America Beautiful completed a litter study in 2020, there are still 50 billion pieces of litter on the ground. If every American would pick up 152 pieces of that litter (and no more was added), our country would be litter free!”
As for C.J.’s plans moving forward, once he’s done cleaning up the wooded area around the pond at Veterans Park, he has plans to clean up another wooded area near his house. Also, according to his grandmother, C.J.’s cleanup efforts travel across state lines as he spends time picking up trash during family vacations to North Myrtle Beach in South Carolina.
C.J. Young is joined by his mother Kellie Young as he accepts supplies for cleanup from Jenifer Young-Young, Keep Delaware County Beautiful coordinator. This was during a recent visit at the Delaware Public Health District office.
C.J. C.J. Young is a fourth grader at Schultz Elementary in Delaware. He holds a bag filled with trash he picked up in the wooded area nearby Veterans Park.
Joshua Keeran is The Delaware Gazette’s managing editor. You can reach him at 740-413-0900.
