Posted April 23, 2021

Phoenixville might be the cleanest town in the region after more than 220 students of Holy Family School in the Chester County community celebrated Earth Day on Friday, April 23. All grades of the students fanned out from the school in the morning and picked up debris across a 36-block area including Reeves Park, just two blocks from the school. The community cleanup day was the first of its kind for the Catholic regional school, and the activity helped reinforce classroom lessons of care for creation and respect for life.

The Student Council also held a fundraiser the previous day in which students could dress down and donate $1 for Team Trees, an organization that plants one tree for each dollar raised. (Photos by Matthew Gambino)

  • Kindergarteners walk carefully with their teacher along the blocks near their school searching for any debris they can pick up.

  • Eighth graders at Reeves Park fill bags with debris.

  • Kindergarten teacher Leah Rhoads helps bag the items her children picked up around St. Ann Church, which is among the feeder parishes for Holy Family School.

  • Eighth graders scour Reeves Park in their cleanup activity.

  • Holy Family School’s Student Council President Patrick McNierney, right, carries a bag of refuse his eighth-grade classmates gathered in Reeves Park.

  • Teacher Matt Cahill helps to bag items his first-grade students picked along the park as they scanned the blocks near their school.

  • Katie Lyons and her eighth-grade classmates are proud to keep their community park clean.

  • Fifth graders under the direction of their teacher, Mary Mizii, show off the bags of trash they filled.

  • A group of fifth graders finds some weeds to remove around the entrance to their school.