In celebration of Earth Day, volunteers entered the Hommocks Conservation Area in Mamaroneck wielding gloves and garbage bags, prepared to commit two hours of their Saturday morning to picking up trash.
The town of Mamaroneck has been organizing such an event for the last six years. The cleanups seek to both spruce up and show off the conservation area, which is located just beyond the Hommocks Middle School soccer fields.
“I think it’s so important to get people out to even see the Hommocks Conservation Area,” Mamaroneck Town Supervisor Nancy Seligson told the Review. “Most people don’t know it’s there.”
At 10 a.m., on April 22, volunteers were greeted with a breakfast of granola bars and bananas donated by Trader Joe’s, and water bottles provided by Walgreens.
Seligson estimated more than 40 people signed up for the event, consisting of students from Mamaroneck High School and Iona College, as well as members of the Mamaroneck community. Most of the participants opted to walk, carpool and ride their bikes to the event in the spirit of being eco-friendly.
Participants were handed bags for recycling and garbage, and told to walk through the conservation, and along the grass near Hommocks Road to collect debris.
“This is a very fun way to make an immediate difference in an important environmental area,” Seligson said.
The supervisor said that the event was the first of the bi-annual cleanup initiatives planned by the town this year. The second event is held on International Coastal Cleanup Day, Sept. 16, and is a day dedicated to collecting and removing trash from the oceans and other bodies of water.
Patrick Lynch, an Iona College senior representing his fraternity, Pi Kappa Phi, at the event.
Lynch said that it was important for Pi Kappa Phi to reclaim the growing negative connotation associated with fraternities by participating in community-based events. Lynch said that Pi Kappa Phi attends both annual cleanups each year.
Dennis Fluet, a Mamaroneck resident, says that he’s been participating in the Hommocks cleanups for years as well. Fluet and his daughter, Arden, helped clean up the conservation in a way that didn’t involve picking up garbage. Instead, the pair was tasked with cutting and removing vines from trees that can otherwise cause structural damage to the trees and possibly kill them.
Sofia Andrews, an AP Environmental Science teacher at Mamaroneck High School, encouraged her students to participate, believing that it’s important for students taking classes that promote environmentalism to experience such events.
“It’s just part of a greater theme of being active in the community and to know your back yard,” she said.
The items collected were picked up by the town’s Sanitation Department and brought to the waste facility on Maxwell Avenue.
Sue Odierna, sustainability coordinator for the town of Mamaroneck, said that the town collected approximately 300 pounds of trash and recyclables. The cleanup was the first of two that day.
