Watching over East Leyden

The Eagle's Eye

Watching over East Leyden

The Eagle's Eye

Watching over East Leyden

The Eagle's Eye

East Leyden Students Take Part in Adopt-a-Beach-Day

This past Saturday, September 15th, East Leyden’s own Key Club, together with the Outdoor Adventure Club, picked up trash at Loyola Beach.

As a part the Alliance for the Great Lakes annual Adopt-a-Beach Day, Mr. Dominic Manola, Mrs. Anna Kass, and Mr. Kip Pygman brought 62 students from the two clubs to Loyola Beach.

With gloves, a garbage bag, and a clipboard to record trash, students took to the sand to participate in the region wide event.

“For Key Club, this was our second year doing the beach clean-up. Last year we were at Montrose Harbor beach. This year we were at the beach at Loyola University,” said Mr. Manola, one of the Key Club sponsors.

This was also the second year that Key Club and Outdoor Adventure Club have gone together on the same trip.

Mr. Pygman, advisor of Outdoor Adventure Club explained, “Mr. Manola’s club came last year with us for the first time and it worked out really well. He got some really good students from his club and last year he found out about it and asked if there was room for them to come along and there was so we kinda teamed up.”

Mr. Pygman also added that, “Doing the beach clean-up is a neat experience because it combines an outdoor activity while doing a service project simultaneously. It shows the kids that you can have fun outdoors while doing good at the same time.”

“The students got to walk around and pick up the different items. A lot of it was cigarette butts and broken glass, pop tops, soda tops, etc. The kids did an awesome job with it,” Mr. Manola added.

After the clean-up, Key Club has a several different events coming up in the following months.

“The next thing we do is a soup kitchen which we make and serve food for different homeless people and people in need in our community and that’s in October. We also are doing Make-A-Difference Day on October 20th, and we’d be happy to have as many people out to that as we can. In November we do a drive towards the turkey cards.”

Key Club is the only service-specific club at Leyden and Mr. Manola says it is a great way for students to get involved.

“I think why students have liked Key Club so much over the last five years is that it’s really doing something for the community that they can actually see and be a part of and touch and feel.”

The next meeting is October 3rd in the Teacher Cafeteria and new members are always welcome.

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About the Contributor
Eric Jennings, Features Editor
My name is Eric Jennings and I'm a senior at East Leyden High School. I am a newspaper staff writer and reporter for the Talon news site. I am interested in music, sports, and maps. I'm looking to go into the urban planning and design field after high school.