Nowadays, most high schools require some commitment from students in the form of community involvement and volunteer hours. Six students at Valley Regional High School have taken that commitment seriously and gone above and beyond for their community.

Though their schedules include entries like sports, academics, and being camp counselors and volunteers for buddy track programs, Alex Adamson and Nikhil Patel of Essex; Brandon Amara, Matt Caron, and Jared Dompier of Chester; and Sam Swap of Deep River also set aside a few hours each month to meet up and do good. They spend those hours scouring local hiking and walking trails, as well as beach areas, cleaning up, removing trash and debris, and making the natural scenery a little more beautiful with the help of the state of Connecticut Department of Environmental & Energy Protection (DEEP) and the aid of their parents.

“This is where we live. Why not keep it clean and beautiful so everyone can enjoy it?” Amara asked.

“It is amazing how much garbage we clean up everywhere we go. It really makes you think about you carbon footprint, and how we can all work to make it smaller and do our part,” said Caron.

“When you are walking around, out in nature, enjoying the area you don’t want to see random trash all around,” said Adamson.

The students have found some interesting junk on their outings, such as socks and shoes left on the beach, car parts and glasses in the woods, and random metal parts on some walking trials. When the garbage is too much to be put in regular containers, the group alerts DEEP, which takes the items away.

“We need to keep the environment clean for the future. The world doesn’t stop spinning when we die,” said Adamson.

“We are not the only species living here,” said Caron. “We have already taken so much from the animals we need to respectful.”

“It doesn’t hurt to pick up trash when you see it and if everyone did the same, there wouldn’t be any trash in the woods,” said Amara.

Setting an example for others, the students have garnered the respect and admiration of their parents, which is sometimes hard for teenage boys to do.

“We [all the parents] are so proud of these kids for doing something good,” said Brooke Adamson. “They are outside, working together and doing something good for their community, as well as the environment. I think it’s great!”

Ron Amara said, “Anything that gets kids outside and off the couch is a good thing. Kids these days spend so much time inside, every little bit of outdoors time is good for them.”

Anita Patel, who grew up in India, said she is amazed by how much people here don’t recycle.

“We had to recycle everything—it was necessity in India and I can’t believe how much people throw away here, so I am very proud of Nikhil and his friends for doing their part to clean up,” she said. “If these guys can spread the word and touch a life and inspire just one more person to chip in and clean up, then that’s great. Sometimes I don’t think kids understand what an impact they can have.”

The students want to spread the word about their group, get more people involved and do more clean-up efforts. They usually meet on the weekends for about two hours in predetermined areas to clean up. Students who are interested and see them around the halls of Valley Regional High School can stop them and ask them how to help. They might even get the chance to wear one of the originally designed T-shirts the group has created, which bears the mark of recycling.