April 25, 2011

Second Trip

Today was walk number two for inclusion on Walking Miss Eva.  It was a beautiful sunny day in San Diego and we stayed closer to home.  We live one block from an elementary school so we walked around the blocks surrounding the school today.  (This may account for the high number of cigarettes and bottle caps in today's haul.)

Our walk was around 3:30, which is close to when school is let out for the day and seeing all the children walking home I couldn't help but think of recent cuts to school and library budgets here in San Diego (as well as many other communities across the nation).  Although litter has little to do with school budgets, politics, and pension debates I do think they both illustrate the vulnerability of our youth.  Just as litter can impact the health of our children and we need to protect them from it and other environmental dangers, we are also responsible for providing an environment for learning and growth for our children.  I was fortunate enough to grow up in communities and with parents that valued learning and was a frequent attendee of reading hour at our local libraries.  I hope that the same opportunities will be there for Eva and the rest of her generation, especially those that may not have the means to have books in their homes.

Pretty plants, not so pretty trash
Trash Count

Thanks for reading and any emails or comments are welcome.

- John

April 23, 2011

First Post

My wife and I recently welcomed our first child, Eva Caroline, into the world.  I was fortunate to have some time at home to help with adjusting to life with a child and have been taking Eva on many walks around our neighborhood (Sherman Heights) in San Diego.

On today's walk I came across a plastic bag and picked it up.  During the duration of the walk I picked up the assorted pieces of litter I came across along the way and put them in the plastic bag to dispose of when I returned home.  I didn't pick up nearly every piece of litter, but tried to grab as many as I could on the two mile walk we took.  As you can imagine, there was quite a bit of trash on the street - many pieces of which I had likely walked by many times previously.

As I walked I realized that I was really enjoying 'making a difference' by picking up these pieces of trash that would most likely have ended up in the ocean.  I like to feel productive and although spending time with my daughter is productive enough for me I also liked the thought that I was helping in a small way to make her environment a little healthier.

Returning home from our walk I decided to start a blog to document our walks together and the other ways our family is working to make our neighborhood (and the world) a little greener each day.  Here's a photo of today's haul and a spreadsheet to track the type of litter that we collected.

Apt Bag Graphic

First Haul











Trash Count

If you have any thoughts or comments on this post or topics you would like to see in future posts please let me know!

- John