Country Fair 2023: Source to Sea Clean-Up

By TK Lee ’25

Article from the Country Fair 2023 Hearth Issue

Source to Sea is a clean-up project of the Connecticut River held by Eaglebrook School in the fall semester. It was one of the most impactful and influential events I experienced this year, where students learned about the importance of ecosystems, and the path from a source of a river until its end at the sea.

It all started with around 15 people gathering outside of Baines’s parking lot. They were divided into two groups, one focusing on water testing and the other group focusing on picking up trash near the Connecticut River.

Before the groups got on the buses, everyone received t-shirts with the slogan “Source to Sea Clean Up.”

I was placed in the clean-up group with Adrian Shin ’24, Charlie Hutchison ’25, Dylan Kang ’25, Ülla Williams ’26, Ms. Lavin Williams, Ryan Chen '24, Tony Zhu ’25, Henry Choi ’24, Harry Kim ’24, Rose Mallory, ’24 and Easton Ge ’26.

We drove to a location by the Connecticut River where we could see large amounts of trash. We were assigned with a trash bag per two people and my partner was Adrian Shin, a Sixth Former. Adrian and I started searching for trash under a bridge and into bushes, where we found some beer cans and lots of plastic wrappers that people threw away from the bridge. We then moved on to a park near the Connecticut River where we found additional trash such as spray paint cans, which was fascinating and unexpected to find. When it was time to leave, we decided to stop by a mini-construction site on our way back where Ms. Lavin-Williams spotted a considerable amount of trash. Ms. Lavin-Williams taught us that trash can end up in the river, polluting our environment.

In total, Adrian and I picked up a full bag of trash and I think that in total, the whole group filled up 8 bags of trash. We dropped all the bags in the big compost bin near the rink when we got back on campus.

Through this memorable experience, I was able to help the environment and improve our surroundings. I also learned how people like us are so blinded and sometimes tend to forget the amount of trash that we are producing each day. Just like Lao-Tzu, a Chinese philosopher, once stated, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” it is important for me to raise awareness about Source to Sea cleanup and the conservancy of rivers so everyone can learn from it and take that single step together.

Now, what are you waiting for?

Email Ms. Lavin Williams at nlavinwilliams@eaglebrook.org if you want to participate in saving our one and only planet.