Students to Take Part in Earth Day Activities

About 280 students from the Los Angeles Conservation Corps’ Clean and Green program will participate in the agency’s sixth annual Earth Day Celebration on Saturday at the Hansen Dam Sports Center.

During the event, students from Clean and Green’s three regions will perform skits with pro-environment themes and compete in Olympic-style games. City Councilman Richard Alarcon and Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar) are scheduled to speak, along with longtime community activists Ted Minor and Mineola Newman, said Carlos O. Campero, regional coordinator for Clean and Green.

“This is a way of rewarding the students for all their hard work and efforts,” said Campero. “For them, Earth Day is every day.”

Among the skits will be one based on “The Jerry Springer Show,” in which students will play the parts of a talk show host, a litterbug and an environmental activist.

The games will include a 100-meter dash and an obstacle course, among others, said Campero. “It’s just a lot of fun,” he said. “The kids really deserve it.”

The Clean and Green program was started in 1988 as a form of gang diversion and a way to employ youth while beautifying Los Angeles. Since then, the program has employed more than 7,000 students, removed more than 10 million feet of graffiti and more than 10 million pounds of debris. Team members are recruited from the Los Angeles school district’s junior and senior high schools.

The public is invited to Saturday’s event, which runs from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the park’s amphitheater.

For more information, call Campero at (213) 305-1299.