A community cleanup organized through Kinuso School is being credited with helping students take pride in their town while giving residents a cleaner community to enjoy.

Ashley Klyne, who planned and organized the event, says it was not the first cleanup she has led. In previous years, she organized similar efforts for Kinuso School travel clubs and for the Kinuso Knights Senior High Girls Volleyball Team. This year’s cleanup continued that work with a focus on encouraging students to think differently about littering and community responsibility.

Klyne says she hoped students would be less likely to litter after taking part. She says growing up, she participated in several highway cleanups through 4-H, an experience that taught her to value clean public spaces. That lesson stayed with her, she says, and is part of the reason she cares deeply about Kinuso looking its best.

The cleanup itself went smoothly. Klyne created routes throughout town, and school staff selected which routes and classes they would take out that day. Only one route was left unfinished, but volunteers stepped up to complete it on the weekend. Klyne says that despite the size of the job, one encouraging sign this year was that there appeared to be less garbage than in previous years.

Klyne says the cleanup was well received by both students and community members. For Klyne, that positive response reinforced the value of making the cleanup a shared community effort rather than simply a school activity.

Klyne also credited Doug Hunt for picking up the garbage bags and thanked Big Lakes County for providing the grant opportunity connected to the cleanup. She says students will help decide how the funds are used, with ideas including giant courtyard games, sledding tubes for the big hill, light boxes for the lunch-hour art program, cornhole boards and other recess equipment.

Sara Driedger
Lakeside Leader