With all the excitement that spring has finally arrived, what better way to show our appreciation for this beautiful planet than with Earth Day.

On Saturday, April 19, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board snf the city of Minneapolis are celebrating the 14th annual Earth Day Watershed Clean Up. This year, the event has expanded to 32 locations around Minneapolis. Although this may seem like many locations, last year there were 25 locations and 17,200 pounds of garbage were collected which only covered 2.5 percent of the city. This is both far too much garbage littering our Earth and too small a percentage of land covered in an attempt to demonstrate our gratitude for what Earth provides for us.

We can do better this year by covering more area in the cleanup efforts as well as remembering to throw away our trash, turn off our lights and recycle. With your help great things can happen. It only takes a few small efforts on all our parts to make a positive impact on the world.

This coming Saturday, between 9:30 a.m. and noon, the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood is sponsoring the Earth Day event in Father Hennepin Bluff Park (6th Ave. S.E. and Main St. S.E.) near the Stone Arch Bridge. Gloves and bags will be provided along with some breakfast items to get your engines going.

We, as guests of this world, should be conscious of our behaviors toward the land, water, and air along with the consequences to our neighbors. Our decisions are everyone’s consequence.

Make the decision to come on Saturday and give thanks to Mother Earth.

Sydne Westorff is the Marcy-Holmes student liaison. Please send comments to [email protected].