One of my biggest passions is teaching kids the responsibility of cleaning up after themselves. I've been teaching my daughter to throw her trash away since she could walk and she gets highly offended when she sees trash on the ground or people littering. I even found out about one of her friends who during recess would go around and pick up trash instead of playing and my daughter said she wanted to do that as well and I beamed with pride of both girls.
Recently I had the idea to put together a group to come and clean local parks once a month, it would be a way to teach kids to appreciate their community and perhaps a way to make new friends. Not only am I doing this for the kids but for the Moms who say they would like to meet some fellow Moms and find new friends. My thought is that we would meet once a month in the morning and clean the park, then we would stay and play. The kids could have some fun while we parents chatted and got to know each other, it will be a social event as well as awareness.
I was very excited when I met with Shreveport city officials from SPAR and Arlena Acree as well as Shreveport Green's director and they were on board with the idea and excited to see a generation of kids giving back. We have a plan that will start later in June but first I need YOUR help, actually your kids help. I want to come up with a cool name for our group and I'm not very creative but maybe one of our Macaroni Kids could help! Talk to your kids and tell them what we are doing, work with them to come up with a fun name and submit it no later than June 15th. We will pick a name from those submitted and the winner will receive a prize package from our sponsors and be featured in Macaroni Kid! Let's be creative and fun and if they want to do a picture along with it we would welcome it. I know we have some great kids out there so help us out.
Here's how to submit your childs entry:
Email to: pamelak@macaronikid.com
Mail to: Macaroni Kid S/B, Attn: Protect our Park contest, PO Box 4172, Shreveport, La 71134.
Good luck and I look forward to seeing what we receive.
