TIDYING UP CAPE GIRARDEAU: CENTRAL STUDENTS FOR LITTER PATROL

When one student drops a soda cap or candy wrapper, he becomes a litter bug. When an entire student body does it, there is a litter problem.

That's why Cape Girardeau Central High School senior Laura Lueders felt something had to be done. Lueders, with help from her friends, started the Students Aspire to Guard the Environment Club, SAGE, at Central. She said she and her friends were tired of looking at a campus covered in litter.

"I don't think people realize what they look at every day," Lueders said. "They just kind of walk past things without really looking at it. I respect property in general, and I like to see a clean place."

Lueders said the group started a school recycling program in September. They got the idea to start cleaning the campus after reading a complaint from a homeowner who lives near the school, she said.

"We were not very proud to realize the homeowners in the area were disappointed in us," she said. "We appreciate them for letting us park on the streets, so we decided to do something about it."

Lueders organized an effort that includes members of SAGE, Beta Club, and Future Business Leaders of America to form trash pickup details three times each week. The students canvas the campus and the three streets facing the school on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays for about 30 minutes after school. Lueders said they usually collect about two barrels of trash.

Assistant principal Rich Payne, who is responsible for campus buildings and grounds, said the school happily provides the students with plastic gloves and trash bags.

"The students came to me with it," he said. "They're doing a fine job, and I was glad to help."

This is the first week of the trash pickup, and students said they are enthusiastic about the trash detail.

"I just moved here, and they didn't have anything like this at the last school I went to," said sophomore Jessie Derusha. "This is something I thought I'd want to do, and I still do."

Lueders said most of the volunteers so far have been seniors. She said she hopes the project continues after they graduate in May.

"We have juniors and sophomores too, and hopefully they'll keep this going," she said. "It's not a fun activity. You do if for a good reason, and not for yourself. It's not so much fun as it is work."

Renaissance Club coordinator Julia Jorgensen said what the students are attempting is admirable. "It's really impressive to see students taking action like this," she said. "They saw a need and they organized to do something about it. I think that's admirable."