Jacquelin Edwards
Contributing Writer

Dirt, dirt, dirt!

Saturday April 21 was a day for getting dirty as volunteers came out from Pierce College with shovels, pitchforks and a smile, to Green the Park.

This years Green the Park was in full bloom with Issues and Awareness Coordinator Trevor Eakes leading the charge to help maintain our environment.

In coordination with the City of Lakewood and Bridgette Stevenson as well as Michele LaFontaine, professor of Science Technology, Green the Park was set up to help the local parks.

Volunteers from Pierce and Clover Park as well as the community were tasked with an array of events such as; planting flowers, bushes, laying mulch on trails as well as up trash.

This was designed to improve one of the very own local parks; Fort Steilacoom Park.

“It is an excellent opportunity for students to give back directly to a place that they actually see and experience and enjoy on a daily basis,” Eakes stated a couple of days before the big event.

“I go on walks there all the time.”

Ft. Steilcoom park is the largest park in the city.

This park includes Waughop Lake, an off leash dog park, and several soccer and baseball fields.

It was once a homesteader’s farm around 1844, becoming Fort Steilacoom in 1849. In 1868 the government purchased the land as an insane asylum for Washington territory where residents grew crops and orchards in the  park area.

There is no mistaking that this area has history and it is important to the city and its residents to keep it in proper working order.

Bridgette Stevenson had said she was hoping for a lot of volunteers and she got them.

There were people at every turn digging up weeds, laying down mulch, building new things and most importantly having a good time.

“I love doing this,” said Travis Holcombe, a Pierce College student.

“It makes me feel good knowing that I am doing something good for the Earth.”

But Pierce College students were not the only ones out that day in the sun.

A large group of high school students, coming from Tacoma and even Olympia were de -weeding a part of terrain at the park.

But no matter how hard the work, they loved every minute of it.

“We come out here because we get to do something good for the environment,” said a Pierce College student.

“It may not be solving global warming but it’s a start.”

Imagine there was no one to clean the parks, no volunteers or city officials to help keep what the community appreciates in working order.

Imagine children or a family playing in a park where the grass was faded brown, flowers have stopped blooming because the land was littered with trash such as beer cans and candy wrappers.

There are no trees, the lake’s shining waters have turned black from pollution and the park’s play area for children is coated with slime. This is what students were trying to keep from happening.

“I would hate to see this park go to ruins,” said Mary Schindler. “I take my children here all the time and they love it and so do I! Why shouldn’t I contribute?”

And it was successful, by the time the end of the day came around; people were tired but laughing and smiling nonetheless.

Showing any doubters that it is possible to help the environment while having fun!