LAKE , from Page 1 in town . Despite a cloudy day with the wind picking up , volunteers gathered in front of the Canoe Club for registration as approximately 200 volunteers were given a neon green Atlantic County Utilities Authority ( ACUA ) neon green shirt , trash bags and a scooper while being treated with coffee and donuts .
Members of the Hammonton
Green Committee , Environmental and the Lake Water Quality Advisory Commission were in attendance as well as town councilmen Jonathan Oliva and Tom Gribbin . A good majority of the volunteers were middle and high school students , who were given community service certificates by the event organizers to add to their volunteer credits , including those in the National Honor Society .
“ This is a spectacular day , this is a cross section of two wonderful things : the community has a need and the community comes together to fill it . We got a lot of people who worked really hard to help make this day : [ Hammonton Education Association President and Vice President ] Anthony and Tracy Angelozzi , [ Green Committee Chairperson ] Amy Menzel , [ Hammonton Environmental and Lake Water Quality Advisory Commissions Chairperson ] Dan Bachalis and [ Parks and Recreation Leader ] Denise Mazzeo . We worked for the last couple months , making sure we coordinate and get all the pieces together for today so thank you guys very much ,” Oliva said to those in attendance .
The volunteers broke up into groups , with middle and high school students being guided by the Angelozzis to do the town cleanup , others were cleaning up the lake area as well as the wooded area . Parents were with their children as they worked together to pick up various pieces of trash and recyclable items to help keep the town and Hammonton Lake Park clean .
Aidan McShane and Tyler Yarnes were a few student volunteers who came out to the lake and town clean up . Both Yarnes and McShane both didn ’ t have anything to do for the weekend so
Wednesday , March 8 , 2023 • The Hammonton Gazette • Page 3
All ages participated in cleaning up the town March 4
they both felt that coming to participate was one way to start their weekends .
“ I think it ’ s really nice because you ’ re making a difference and you ’ re going out and picking up trash so it ’ s better for the environment ,” McShane said .
Angelina Catania was another student volunteer who participated in the event with Hammonton High School giving community service hours . Catania is a National Honor Society member and seeing the younger generation coming out to volunteer is something that is great to see for her .
“ It ’ s very cool , being a part of the younger generation and everybody coming out , it ’ s good to see that kids still want to be a part of the community ,” Catania said .
Hammonton High School English teacher Adam Preim volunteered at the lake and town clean up with his daughter , Addison . Preim participated in last year ’ s lake and town clean up and seeing young teenagers participate is something that he sees can help set an example for Addison .
“ I saw the flyer and my daughter uses this park so I told her that if she wants to use it , she ’ s gotta clean it so we came last year and she had a great time , got a lot of trash picked up so we came again . I work at the high school and Addison knows that I work with older kids and for her to see an example , like 40 teenagers that came out to help the park to make it better , it ’ s a nice example for my daughter to know that the kids , teachers and their families care too ,” Preim said .
Hammonton Green Committee Chairperson Amy Menzel said having young people involved was important .
“ It ’ s so good to have the help from the Hammonton Education Association in recruiting students from the high school and I think it ’ s important that kids get to see kids gain experience in doing service to the community and hopefully , that gets them thinking about things they can do to help the community ,” Menzel said .
Bachalis calls the lake and town cleanup , along with the Green Day Festival , among the town ’ s best events as numerous people come out to volunteer to help clean the town , especially people that are not from the town coming to volunteer .
“ For this event , so many people come out to clean . We ’ ve got people coming here , not only from Hammonton but we ’ ve got people coming from Galloway , Vincentown and all the other municipalities around Hammonton coming out to help us clean up our community . Jonathan mentioned that
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