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Recycling, cleaning up provides a sense of satisfaction
The quality of life in Nebraska is high, depending on what you define as quality of life. Life feels good when you feel a high degree of satisfaction and deep personal wellbeing. These feelings are different for everybody. My sense of satisfaction is high when one of my students understands something that was previously confusing. I feel a great sense of well-being when I run 10 miles a little faster than I did last week, or when I don't come in last in a road race! Your sense of satisfaction may flow when you hit the golf ball squarely, or watch the first bud of the summer slowly unfold into a breathtaking rose. Quality of life may mean enjoying good health or it may come from fun times spent with good friends.
Many people feel a great sense of satisfaction when they help others, or engage in a cause that they believe in. Several groups in Southwest Nebraska took part in a good cause when they volunteered to pick up trash in their neighborhoods last spring for McCook's Great American Clean-Up on April 12.
Boy Scout Troop No.132 picked up trash in downtown McCook, while Mike O'Dell and Eric Olson organized their cub scouts for a clean-up of Barnett Park. Cassie Olson and the McCook High School student council picked up trash on Norris Avenue and around the high school grounds. The Driftwood Feeders 4-H club cleaned up Russell Park. The Chamber of Commerce Leadership Institute spruced up Kelley Park. The teachers and students at McCook Elementary School picked up trash around their school, and the Junior High did the same around their school. Central Elementary, under the leadership of Anne Confer and the other Central Elementary teachers, not only cleaned up the fairgrounds and the baseball park, they also learned about recycling at school and at the McCook Recycling center.
At Hitchcock County High School in Trenton, the National Honor Society organized a community-wide clean-up on the last day of school. All students in grades seven through twelve picked up trash and junk. This was the second year that the Honor Society organized this event, and many students felt really good about helping others and making the town look cleaner and brighter.
Think about taking some time out of your life to make your community cleaner. When you take a walk, take along a plastic sack and pick up trash along the way. When you are finished with the walk, not only have you logged some good exercise, but your town is a little bit cleaner, and you'll feel like what you do matters. Youth groups can set up trash pick-up projects or a Saturday clean-up project to help senior citizens with their yards. Many older people are unable to clean up their yards or are unable to pay someone to clean up for them. Many churches in Southwest Nebraska are beginning to see that churches can be effective stewards for the earth.
In a perfect world, no one would drop litter. It would be great to let everyone in on the big secret that it feels good to care for the environment. McCook has a great recycling center west of Four Winds Animal Clinic on old Highway 34. Think about collecting plastic -- No. 1 and No. 2, newspapers, magazines, cardboard, aluminum cans, and tin cans. You need to set aside space in your home or garage to collect these items, but you feel a sense of accomplishment when you drive away from the recycling center. You can make a difference in the health of the planet!
-- The writer is an avid runner and has a marathon and numerous half-marathons under her belt. She is a teacher at Hitchcock County Schools, and is happy to be known as the Litter Lady.