Clear Spring students collect 39 bags of trash

EUREKA SPRINGS -- Clear Spring School has been conducting its annual student-run Trashathon for 35 years, taking a day each year to clean up the roadsides of trash and recycling, with the biggest haul being 860 bags.

During the past few years students have noticed that dump sites are getting fewer and roadside litter sparser.

This year, as students prepared for the Trashathon, they went around Eureka Springs and Berryville, checking out areas that have always tended to attract litter. The dump sites were no longer there.

Still, the equivalent of 30 bags of trash and 39 bags of recycling were collected. Students developed a feeling of satisfaction, doing their part to help their community, and knowing the community is pitching in and doing its part.

Clear Spring School strives for substantiability and its mission statement talks about instilling a lifelong love of learning.