The Black and White

by Lexi Warburton

The sophomore class recently took part in a beach clean-up at Oakland beach. This clean up was sponsored by a grant that class advisor, Mrs. Sarah Ames applied for through the city of Warwick and Litter Free RI. The grant was originally brought to Mrs. Ames’ attention by sophomore Brett Taylor, before he even knew he was the class president. Brett needed an administrator to apply for the grant, but was confident that this would be a fun activity, as well as a good way for Pilgrim to interact with the community. 

Mrs. Ames went to city hall to get more information and had to pick an area of Warwick to focus on, as well as a date . Mrs. Ames and the sophomore class picked Oakland beach on October 27th. Mrs. Ames was in charge of getting in touch with city hall and filling out the forms. Once they picked the area and the application went through, they were awarded the 500 dollar grant and got the go-ahead for the clean up. With the money from the grant, Mrs. Ames bought gloves, trash grabbers ( which everyone loved), and snacks for everyone once they were done, which was allowed and approved through the grant. 

The kids that attended, which was about 15-20, had so much fun that they asked to apply for this grant again either next year or senior year. Mrs. Ames didn’t want to apply back-to-back and apply again next year, but she does plan to apply again when the class of 2027 are seniors. Mrs. Ames gave the leftover cleanup equipment to the Urban Sociology classes to use in their cleanups. “In two years we can look at the level of equipment because they’re going to be using it”.  Next time, the kids and Mrs. Ames would like to go to a bigger area to clean like city park. By the time they are seniors, there is also expected to be a bigger group because the kids will be able to drive by themselves. 

Overall, the beach clean up was very successful in involving students and also giving back to the Warwick community. I had the opportunity to talk to some students that attended and they all said it was fun and definitely something they would love to do again. Hopefully, the grant and equipment is still available to use.