KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City leaders say one of the biggest issues they face is trash and illegal dumping.
On Thursday, Southeast High School students helped combat the issue by picking up what’s been left behind.
Jordan Stanford is one of 60 Southeast High School seniors that spent their Thursday picking up trash near Bannister Road.
Stanford loves Kansas City, and anyone spending time with the senior quickly sees his love for people.
“Whether it's just something small or big, helping out people, it makes me feel good inside,” Stanford said. “It just makes me feel a bit important that I'm willing to take some stuff that might be disgusting but can really help KC,” Stanford said.
The effort comes after a recent sidewalk study from the students.
They presented their findings to the city’s Neighborhoods and Public Safety committee, discussing the impact trash and illegal dumping have on safety and neighborhood cleanliness.
“For these students to want to make the effort to make the city a better place and be willing to take part of their school day to do something like this, speaks volumes,” Neighborhoods and Housing Services spokesman John Baccala said.
The senior class president reached out to the city to fix the growing issue.
“I think everybody knows the problem we have in Kansas City,” Baccala said.
These students created their own homework assignment to help clean up their community.
“It would've taken our crews probably an entire day to pick up 40 plus trash bags that they picked up, so we could use the help,” Baccala said. “We're not lying.”
For Stanford, he says he hopes to preserve the green scenery Kansas City has to offer.
“And it’s the fact that all this trash is ruining it and we want to keep that green scenery just the way it is, so I figured this is just going to be right,” Stanford said. “Hopefully it'll inspire other kids to take their part in the community.”
In the course of four hours, students cleaned up roughly 70 bags of trash.
