FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md. (April 26, 2012) -- Alexandra Brooks spent her Saturday morning wearing plastic gloves and lugging around a large garbage bag as she strolled through Meuse Forest with other members of Fort Meade Girl Scout Troops 1364 and 1349.
"We're picking up trash and recycling for the community," said Alexandra, 11. "It's good for the earth."
The eight Girl Scouts were among the 60 volunteers who helped spruce up the housing areas throughout the installation during the Enlisted Spouses Club's fourth annual Clean Up Fort Meade. This year, volunteers picked up nearly 110 bags of trash and recyclables throughout the communities.
Typically, the cleanup is held in May, but this year the club moved the event to commemorate Earth Day.
"Earth Day is important to us," said Rachel Jamison, ESC president. "Most of us live here on post and it's important to us to keep it clean."
Volunteers began working around 7:30 a.m., with groups at Meuse Forest, Potomac Place, Heritage Park and Midway Commons. Community members spread out in each of the neighborhoods in search of garbage. Each community had at least 10 volunteers, Jamison said, but the biggest cleanup was at Meuse Forest with 30 people.
Among them was Navy Information Systems technician Petty Officer 1st Class Frank Miller of the Fleet Cyber Command/Tenth Fleet, who helped pack four large bags with trash. Miller said it's important for the community to clean up its neighborhoods.
"In the military the community is like your house, you're all working together," he said. "You're not going to leave your house a mess; you're going to keep your house clean."
Hope Brooks, wife of Marine Master Sgt. Keith Brooks, brought Girl Scout Troops 1364 and 1349 to the Meuse Forest cleanup as part of a troop community service project. Brooks said the girls were eager to help.
"Everything that the troops do," she said, "is girl-led. We don't do something if they don't want to do it."
For Brooks, the two-hour cleanup was a learning tool to help teach the girls about taking care of their community.
"We talk when we're walking around, 'Is it your trash? No.' But it's your community that you live in, so you pick it up," she said.
While much of the garbage was the standard stray paper or plastic soda bottle, some people found unusual trash.
"We also have them picking up large items, too," Jamison said. "To my knowledge we found a deep fryer and a chain-link fence."
By the end of the event, volunteers packed a total of 107 bags, with 62 filled with trash and 45 recyclables.
"It's pretty great," Jamison said of the event. "We just hope it builds every year."
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