At Lake Tahoe School, being a good neighbor starts right here on our own turf. While community service can sometimes feel like a high-level concept, our second graders are proving that it’s actually as simple as rolling up your sleeves, grabbing a bucket, and looking closely at the ground beneath your feet.
Every Friday afternoon since the start of the school year, the second-grade class transforms into the “Clean Team,” scouring the grounds for litter and lost treasures to ensure our shared spaces remain beautiful. This initiative, set forth by our second-grade teacher, Ms. Diana, was further encouraged by a visit from Waste Management in October. The guest speaker deepened students’ understanding of how trash affects Lake Tahoe, inspiring them to double down on their campus beautification efforts.
During their Monday morning all-school assembly, the Clean Team took to the stage to share their mid-year progress:
- Trash Collected: 1,094 pieces
- Total Weight: 4lbs, 8oz
- Lost & Found Items Returned & Recess Equipment Saved: 305 items
Ms. Diana and the Clean Team concluded their presentation with a heartfelt plea: pick up after yourself and protect our environment! By asking fellow students to take personal responsibility for their belongings, the second graders are teaching the entire school that the best way to protect our environment is to prevent the mess in the first place.
The Clean Team’s efforts offer a window into Lake Tahoe School’s broader philosophy of stewardship. It begins in PreK, where our littlest Bobcats learn the basics of empathy and caring for one another. As they grow, students learn to extend that empathy to proximal stewardship—taking ownership of their immediate environment. Once they have mastered caring for their own ‘backyard,’ this commitment naturally evolves into regional efforts, like the East Shore Trail cleanup in Middle School, and eventually reaches across borders to the coffee farms of Costa Rica in eighth grade.
Whether it’s a second grader picking up a stray wrapper on the playground or a middle schooler clearing debris from a lakeside trail, the mission remains the same: to raise a generation of sustainability leaders. We are incredibly proud of our second graders for leading the charge. They remind us that no one is too small to make a difference, and that a cleaner Tahoe starts with a cleaner campus.
