Students clean up Gogebic Range for Earth Day

WAKEFIELD - Students across the Gogebic Range, including in Ironwood and Wakefield-Marenisco, wanted to get out and make a difference in their community for Earth Day on Friday. While Earth Day is today, school officials used the day before, with classes in session, to mark the occasion.

In Ironwood, the district's second and sixth graders partnered up to walk the city's portion of the Iron Belle Trail, cleaning up garbage they found there.

The trash included everything from cigarette butts and beer cans to an old metal pot and snowmobile parts.

The partnership between the two grades was a natural fit, as the two have partnered throughout the year as weekly reading buddies.

"We decided this week we were going to do an Earth Day cleanup with them," second-grade teacher Tony Bunt said.

The trail cleanup was just one of the Earth Day projects the district was involved in, with other students doing various other projects - including the district's third graders helping clean up Ayer Street around the school.

Students in Ironwood's 4-year-old Great Start program walked around the Sleight School neighborhood and picked up trash on Friday.

Elsewhere on the Gogebic Range, W-M social studies teacher Chris Tweiten scheduled the students to hit the streets and trails on a sunny Friday.

Many of the W-M kids were seen wearing gray Project Clean UP T-shirts and sweatshirts. Tweiten said the school received a donation from Mike Zacharias of Extreme Tools to help with the project. Zacharias, according to Tweiten, is very active with the local communities.

The W-M kids' efforts to make a difference in their community are not done. Some continue to work on a bicycle trail they started last year under Tweiten's direction. With the snow off the ground and the thaw complete, Tweiten said they would meet May 10 and May 24 to work on the trail some more.