Big+Sweep+(Wake+Co.)

Wake County Big Sweep Brooke Chow 2A Ogren Big Sweep offers the opportunity for volunteers to clean up their community. Specifically, I went to Marsh Creek in Raleigh to perform this duty. There, I picked up an assortment of rubble, ranging from colorful little trinkets to car doors and even a 100-gallon container of (what we assumed to be) gasoline. Attending this event was eye-opening. Seeing the huge amounts of rubble in person made me realize just how much danger it can pose to the wildlife. An animal faces unnecessary difficulty just to survive; how can a rabbit distinguish the differences between a berry and a Coke cap? Not only does participation in this event clean up the environment, it also raises awareness to members of the community when they see the tedious process of picking up this trash. This type of event exposes people to nature; physically working with nature bridges the gap between learning and understanding environmental science.