Fourth grader starts Green Team to keep College Place Elementary clean

While most students at Lynnwood’s College Place Elementary spend their recess on the playground, fourth-grader Yohannes Habetmairiam spends his time cleaning it.

Following a trip to a local beach, Yohannes said he was “amazed” by the amount of garbage he found on the shores of Puget Sound – and he was inspired to make a change in his own community. With the help of College Place Elementary Office Manager Lisa DeVries, Habetmairiam started the school’s first Green Team. During each recess, Yohannes and other Green Team students set out to rid the elementary’s playground and outdoor spaces of trash.

“I don’t want the trash to just pile up and make other animals, insects, small, big or other stuff, eat those and I don’t want that to happen,” Yohannes said.

DeVries said that she is “extremely proud” that Yohannes and his classmates choose to use their recess time cleaning the school’s outdoor spaces, adding they have encouraged their peers to join. Approximately 15 students in varying grades are now a part of the Green Team at every recess, and with such consistent cleanings there is sometimes no garbage for them to collect.

“This is their future and this is the Earth that they inhabit and will for long years to come, and they’re just making a fantastic choice to be proactive,” DeVries said.

After Yohannes approached her about starting the Green Team, DeVries said the two of them had a conversation about how positively affecting the local environment can help the community and planet as a whole. DeVries said that watching Yohannes start the Green Team and encourage his classmates to help has increased her optimism for youth and the future of the planet.

“When things feel so big in the world today, the one thing you can do is something small,” DeVries said. “If everybody does something small, we’re making the world a better place.”

While on the playground, members of the Green Team can be seen wearing high-visibility vests, gloves and hats donated by Republic Services, which manages waste transport and removal for the school. Green Team students are also equipped with extendable trash grabbers donated by College Place Elementary teachers.

When asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, Yohannes pointed to the Republic Services logo on his vest, explaining that he wanted to do something in the world of cleaning.

“I feel good when I do that [pick up trash],” he said.

Yohannes said he hopes that all members of the community will continue to help keep the area clean and when someone has trash to throw away, they’ll dispose of it properly.