“Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen…that’s it,” Junior Andrew Frank muttered, counting the number of bags of trash he and the rest of the For the Love of the Lake Club (FTLOTL) had pulled from the lake that day. Cole Fincher ’13, who shares the duties of club president with Frank, proudly took in the club’s work that day at White Rock Lake: for three hours, the club had bagged up discarded bottles, Styrofoam (lots and lots of Styrofoam), and other indistinguishable items of trash.
Unfortunately, even after a day of cleaning, it hardly looked like the club had made a dent in the limitless sea of trash that had collected at the head of White Rock Creek near the dog park. But every time they picked up a piece of trash and lifted another bag out of the littered lake, it was apparent they were making progress, albeit slow.
After working from 9:00 a.m. to noon on a cold December 2011 day, while most teenagers were only slowly rolling out of their beds, the prevailing feeling among the group was a combination of accomplishment and satisfaction. With pride glowing in their eyes, the club members said goodbye, picked up their trash grabbers, hopped into their cars, and drove home to enjoy the rest of their Saturday.
Jesuit’s recently-founded For the Love of the Lake Club is an independent branch of the larger For the Love of the Lake Organization, a non-profit dedicated to preserving White Rock Lake. The Jesuit club offers students an easy way to make a visible, positive impact on the local environment.
Both Frank and Fincher have shown an interest in environmental affairs, an interest that has quickly become a lifestyle. After the first couple of Styrofoam-packed cleanups, Fincher remarked, “I feel really bad for drinking out of Styrofoam cups. I try not to use them [anymore].” Fincher’s sentiment was echoed by everyone who attended the FTLOTL event; environmentally apathetic members are nonexistent.
While the club was only officially founded this year, a number of Jesuit students have been going down to the lake to clean on a regular basis since last spring. Community service director Richard Perry, who was “really excited about a Jesuit extension of the organization that Fincher and Frank had founded,” offered to help jumpstart the club, and by the end of October there was broad student participation. As the club was being formed, plans were put in place to have a Kayak day on the lake this spring for all dedicated members.
Besides the “rewarding” feeling and “sense of accomplishment,” the cleanup experience is an adventure. Under Mockingbird Bridge, where FTLOTL focuses its efforts, participants are always surprised about the out-of-place items they find, including iPhones and dolls. In a short interview with Fincher, he recalled the multitude of items he had found: “Besides the multiple broken iPhones we’ve found down there, I remember finding a traffic light, a High School Musical backpack, a Jesuit Crew water bottle, and a dog that had traveled all the way from St. Louis.” Obviously, ordinary days at the lake are simply non-existent.
Besides the obvious effect on the community of making the lake cleaner, participants also garner a great deal of respect and admiration from bikers and runners who frequent the trails around White Rock Lake. Frank commented that the club “not only improves the scenery of the lake, but also makes everyone a lot happier and grateful for the lake they have, and the simple beauty in nature.”
Clark R. Durham, a regular White Rock runner and father of senior Clark Durham, remarked that he’s “hugely appreciative of the work that volunteers do. They are so caring to take time out of their days to keep the lake clean. I always give [volunteers] a wave when I run by; they keep the lake from turning in to a cesspool of trash that it would be otherwise.”
Durham’s attitude is shared by runners, bikers, and nature lovers alike. Clearly FTLOTL’s work is beneficial in more ways than one, and hopefully with the added Jesuit auxiliary, FTLOTL can keep the lake, as Durham puts it, “incredibly beautiful.”
