Some days it is hard to be on our best behavior. Whatever the reason, sometimes we forget to follow rules and show our best standards of decorum. Our girls in the Rodriguez ES bike club recently had one such day—which included littering at a local playground. The Ghisallo bicycling instructors wanted to teach these students the importance of good behavior, and disposing of trash in proper receptacles. So the following week, we all swapped our bicycle helmets for rubber gloves and garbage bags. We served our student community by picking up trash around the Rodriguez ES school grounds.

This was organized as discipline for poor behavior, and the girls understood that they were expected to complete this activity with minimal grumbling. Fortunately, these exuberant students soon found enjoyment in completing their task.  After splitting into two teams, each one lead by a Ghisallo bicycling instructor who helped with trash clean-up, the girls turned the trash collection activity into a competition. Each team determined to pick up more trash than the other.

After about an hour, each team had completely filled one whole trash bag with old potato chip bags, candy wrappers, and plastic bottles discarded around on or near the school grounds. If the students found broken glass or some other potentially unsafe trash items, they alerted the adult Ghisallo instructors to collect it (as dictated during our brief orientation). The girls were still excited to pick up more trash when the day was over and it was time to pack up and go home.

We are proud of the Rodriguez bike club girls for showing such cheerful and hard-working attitudes when faced with a task that was challenging, but necessary for their growth.  We look forward to resuming regular bike club activities next time, and keeping our neighborhood playgrounds litter free!