Source: The Berkeley Daily Planet, By Matthew Greenfield – October 16, 2012
More than 50 high school students from the environmental studies class at Skyline High School in Oakland will join the Student Conservation Association (SCA) and Pick Up America on October 19 from 11:30a.m.to 2p.m. for a “Youth Day of Service” cleanup and restoration event to benefit the Oakland shoreline of Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline Park. SCA is a nationwide conservation workforce of college and high school volunteers who protect and restore America’s parks, forests, refuges, seashores and communities. Pick Up America is the nation’s first coast-to-coast roadside litter pick-up and was started by SCA alumnus Jeff Chen.
Through school-year and summer programs, SCA works with Bay Area youth ages 16-19 to provide green job skills, leadership training and a variety of outdoor experiences with the goal of building the next generation of conservation leaders. Jeff Chen, who, out of his experiences with SCA, created Pick-Up America, set out across America one year ago with a crew to pick up trash from the roadside. To date Jeff’s team has collected 186,524 pounds of litter. Continue reading.