Green Jersey

Newark students tend to city on Earth Day 2009

Image via beautifulnewark.org.

We’re told tens of thousands of students from more than 70 schools in the Newark area are cleaning schoolyards and nearby streets and planting seeds and flowers today.

They’re not alone — students from around the country are participating in organized cleanup efforts today for Earth Day. Newark’s initiative is part of “Beautiful Newark,” a youth-driven city beautification begun in 2006. According to organizers, about 39,000 Newark students will participate; Mayor Cory Booker is scheduled to speak this morning at Hawthorne Avenue School, where cleanup efforts will kick off at noon.

“While Earth Day is global in scope, it begins right in our own backyards,” Joseph Czaszynski, the Newark League Coach Coordinator, Newark Public Schools, said in a statement. “It’s our job as teachers and neighbors, to encourage students to protect our environment, reminding them that it’s something we need to do not only on Earth Day, but every day.”

Newark’s Earth Day initiative is one of four key events sponsored by the League, a nonprofit, throughout the school year.