Volunteers from Meramec combine efforts to clean Simpson Park
By: Shane Rice
-Staff Writer-
On Saturday, April 18, community volunteers met at Simpson Park along the Meramec River in Valley Park, Mo. to assist in the cleanup of the park and Simpson Lake.
Twice a year, volunteers from different organizations combine their efforts in the cleaning and maintenance of Simpson Park. This spring members from STLCC-Meramec, including the Service Learning department and Phi Theta Kappa-Xi Lambda, as well as the Denver branch of AmeriCorps, St. Louis Canoe and Kayak Club and the St. Louis County Parks and Recreation Department, joined forces to contain a honeysuckle issue that plagues vegetation growth.
Sue Kuhnert, project coordinator for St. Louis County Parks and Recreation, said, “This is a huge cleanup project. By removing the honeysuckles it allows the re-growth of the wild flowers and forest life.”
Donna Halsband, service learning coordinator for Meramec, said, “One of the big problems with the honeysuckle is that it’s the first to bloom in the spring and the last to die in the fall. It takes over the floral of the forest to the point where nothing else grows. None of the native plants can keep up with it.”
Grand Glaze Creek and the Meramec River sit next to Simpson Lake, and when heavy rainfall causes flooding, it has a tendency to wash trash and debris into the lake, said Jim Lipsmire, lead volunteer for STLC Parks and Recreation.
“When we first started this project we were picking up trash like ice boxes and just all kinds of rubbish from the lake,” said Lipsmire.
Lipsmire said Meramec has always been the key volunteer group in helping maintain and clean Simpson Lake. “Meramec has just put so much work into getting us where we are now.”
Marina Allen, president of Phi Theta Kappa-Xi Lambda, and several other volunteers contributed by removing honeysuckle and trash from the park’s paths and recreation areas.
“To see all the debris and things like Styrofoam, plastic water bottles and wrappers that got picked up was nice to see because it shows what we as volunteers contribute,” said Allen. “I also believe that the heart and soul of the student bodies at Meramec showed.”
Jenny Curtis, a team leader for AmeriCorps, said, “The parks are absolutely beautiful here in St. Louis, but honeysuckles are invasive.”
AmeriCorps is a 10-month commitment program that allows volunteers to travel around the nation assisting with environmental projects like the Simpson Park cleanup.
AmeriCorps has partnered with St. Louis County Parks and Recreation since 2001 and its focuses on this venture are assisting with the removal of honeysuckles and trail building by making way for new trails and maintaining existing ones.
According to Curtis, AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps has been involved in projects like this since the early 1990s, as well as projects for disaster relief, education and forests in Denver, Co. which is home to the southwest branch of AmeriCorps.
“It’s projects like this that really make you appreciate nature, and the people here in St. Louis are just wonderful,” said Curtis.
Last year 97,000 hours of volunteer work were contributed to Simpson Park, said Kuhnert, who said the turnout this year was wonderful and that she hopes to see those numbers continue to grow.
This year a total of 125 volunteers, including 88 students and eight instructors from Meramec, assisted with the cleanup of Simpson Park.
“This is the largest group I’ve seen yet. It was just amazing,” said Kuhnert. “It’s important that our youth are learning to give back to the communities, and volunteers have been amazed at how hard it is to keep a park nice, especially when there’s 12,000 acres of park throughout St. Louis County.”
Halsband said that environmental volunteers are important to the health of the planet. “We want this project to inspire students to learn that volunteering is the rent we pay to be on earth.”
