BELFAST — Approximately one hundred Troy Howard Middle School sixth-graders took to the streets of Belfast May 8, to help clear the area of litter, according to social studies teacher and THMS event organizer Martha Conway-Cole.

Today’s cleanup marked the first leg of the first annual Keeping Belfast Beautiful (KBB) town cleanup, set to occur this Saturday, May 12. It was also the debut of the KBB participation t-shirts, which are bright orange and were designed to promote visibility of the hundreds of area volunteers expected to participate in the event. A long list of community sponsors is printed on the back of the shirt.

The day marked more than volunteering for the students, who had been learning about plastics in the environment in their social studies class, with a downtown cleanup set as an impactful way to conclude the unit.

“We’ve been studying the effect of plastics on our environment, so we wanted to do a coastal cleanup and I saw that John [Gibbs] was organizing Keeping Belfast Beautiful,” Conway-Cole said of how the plan came together. “So I went to the meetings and coordinated with the major efforts for the city.”

Of the experience, Conway-Cole said the kids were interested in the event and totally willing to pick up even the tiniest piece of trash, though much of the tiniest trash ended up being cigarette butts.

Twelve-year-old Donovan said he was excited to participate in the cleanup, and that it was easy to find litter to pick up. Some of the things Donovan found included bottles, cigarette butts, and socks, which surprised him.

“I didn’t expect to find socks,” he said before adding that he likes helping the community he lives in.

Another student who made a memorable discovery was Hannah, 12, who worked with her group in Belfast City Park and on the beachfront. Hannah’s group also had no trouble finding trash, though she said there was less to find on the beach.

John Gibbs, a sergeant with the Belfast Police Department, spearheaded Keeping Belfast Beautiful and was also at today’s event. Gibbs said believes the beaches are cleaner than the surrounding areas due to the many homes perched near the water's edge.

“That’s someone’s backyard,” he said, “and they don’t want to stare at trash.”

Despite there not being a remarkable amount of refuse on the beach, Hannah managed to find a roughly six foot long section of black, rotted pipe, roughly an inch around. Not satisfied with school organized cleanups, she said she also picks up trash when walking around with friends.

One chaperone, Melinda Larrabee, said it was interesting to watch the progress of the cleanup because when scanning the roadside it didn’t seem like there was much trash to be found, but that amount added up quickly.

The students split into roughly eight groups at the start of the cleanup, with some groups beginning at the Muck, or on other downtown streets, and others starting at Belfast City Park. All worked their way toward the Boathouse, where the groups reunited around 1:30.

Both Conway-Cole and Gibbs said they believe the event will have a lasting impact on the kids.

For Gibbs, it brings back memories of his own childhood, when he took part in an annual town cleanup.

“It made an impression on me as a child,” he said.

Gibbs added that he hopes in the future the kids who participated today will think twice about littering, knowing the work involved in picking it back up.

Add that to their newly gained knowledge about the impact of plastics on the environment, and perhaps the impact will be farther reaching.

“I feel like one of the things that the kids really noticed was just how much of a problem cigarettes are, so they were saying, “ah, my grandfather throws them,” or… so I think they’ll probably influence the people around them,” Conway-Cole said.

Gibbs said he was very impressed with the efforts of the day and looks forward to an even bigger haul this Saturday, when the majority of the cleanup efforts will take place, starting at 7 a.m.

Erica Thoms can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com