Three-year-old Nevaeh Yarbrough won a scholarship competition for an “All-Natural Pageant.” One requirement was to complete 10 hours of community service in a year. Within a month she had 11.
Her parents, Ryan Yarbrough and USF St. Petersburg alumna Alexis Yarbrough, decided they should strive for 40 hours instead.
They reached out to Keep Pinellas Beautiful and found some events in their area. On March 18, in William’s Park, Nevaeh and her parents participated in the Great American Cleanup.
“For us, it’s important to teach our children about how important it is to keep our environment clean and that it can be as simple as picking up trash,” said her mother Alexis.
Alexis graduated in 2010 with a degree in business management. Currently, she cares for her three children.
“When I was younger, I didn’t get that involved outside of what was required of me,” Alexis said. “But to instill these values in all three of my children and let them know that it doesn’t matter how young or old you are, that you can still help your community for the better and hopefully inspire others.”
Alexis took classes at all three USF campuses but especially enjoyed USFSP’s beautiful waterfront location. The much-loved bay, though, is often littered with trash from the streets of downtown St. Petersburg.
The litter makes its way into the water primarily through storm drains. Due to heavy rainfall and flooding in the area, there are many storm drains located throughout downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods.
Keep Pinellas Beautiful teamed up with the Great American Cleanup to do its part in keeping the bay and surrounding streets clean. Saturday kicked off the two-month-long project with 13 different locations participating in the cleanup.
Local businesses can sponsor the cleanups to promote environmental awareness as well as their own businesses. REJuled, a small business that makes environment-friendly art ranging from small jewelry to large installations, sponsored the Williams Park cleanup that occurred on March 18.
The previous clean up had only three volunteers, this one had nine, a marked improvement.
Each location has all the supplies needed to safely collect garbage. They even provide T-shirts and other swag to participants.
Signing up is recommended as certain locations fill up more quickly than others. You can find more information for upcoming cleanups on the Keep Pinellas Beautiful website, mykpb.com.
Alexis suggested that students go out and participate, but sympathized that exams and work might take precedent.
“It could be as easy as picking up a piece of trash as you go to class, or not using as much plastic,” Alexis said. “This is something that anybody can get involved in, even without going to an event.”
