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Ella White 5th graders clean up and beautify Sytek Park

(Photo Courtesy/Mike Beiermeister) 5th Graders clean up Sytek Park on Earth Day.

Alpena, Mich. — Monday is Earth Day. It’s also spring clean up day for a local group of fifth graders. S

Students from Ella White Elementary adopted Sytek Park this year, and now, they are working to make the park a cleaner and brighter place.

Cleaning up trash along with hanging up butterfly and bird houses were a few of the items on the agenda for the students. They also wrote  and drew in their journal about nature as well as looking  at different micro invertebrates. The fifth graders have high hopes in transforming their park.

“I’m excited because we are going to plant flowers, and I’m hoping to repaint the dock, and hopefully, add bathrooms, so people don’t have to go home and then never come back,” said 5th grader Olivia Willemin.

The class has partnered with Northeast Michigan Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative to adopt the park and learn more about it. Expect to see more changes at the park throughout the rest of the school year and into the summer.

“Everything that we hope can be done like remodeling the dock and adding things like more benches and stuff like that, it’ll probably be really nice,” said Aiden Kaminske.