More Comments by the 8th Grade Civics Class, Linden STEAM Academy, Malden Public Schools on April 15, 2022

Malden, the place I live, I didn't even know there was some type of "narrow river", which carried on to Boston and the Mystic River. Karen seems like a really nice, and hopeful person! She started a "green team", with the team she'd pick up thousands and thousands of pieces of trash,  at first she'd work herself and take pictures, now she has hundreds of volunteers to help wildlife, spending 3 - 4 hours, which is a long time! Until the state makes "zero waste programs" and until the state makes changes "it's gonna be a problem". After years of collecting trash, they were able to make a larger "trash-trap".  In the place I grew up in, every citizen needs to do their part not just Karen but also choose reusable products, not use so much plastic. These things kill animals, killing our river, which is part of us, part of our home! — Oscar

I think the movie was very eye-opening about the effects on us. I think it's sad how animals have to deal with our trash. I also have found it educational, such as giving ways to stop so much trash from ending up in the river. — Sophia C

I think it's pretty cool what Karen is doing for the river. She must really want to help the ecosystem around here and reverse what humans have done to the river. That river really needs to be cleaned, whenever I've seen it in the past it has always been very dirty. — Samuel

I think it was very interesting since it talked about the history of the Malden River (the insane amount of trash that was in the river surprised me) and inspired me to lessen trash amount and pick up trash. — Caleb

I think it was nice Because it really shows how much people really do care to pick up their stuff and help out the earth. And It reminds me of the SDGs (sustainable development goals). — Megan

I think that it was a great movie, with a good cause and a needed message. I also think that it teaches us in Malden how big of an affect this could have on our own river, as well as the ocean in general. — Thomas

I thought it was pretty cool and it does actually seem fun picking up trash when I think about it because people would be joking around and being together and kayaking which I love. Besides, our community needs this because there are thousands of pounds of trash just in the Malden River. Think about what would happen if everyone in the world helped clean their rivers. — Kail

I thought it was really interesting. I never knew that all of our trash ends up there and it is hurting our environment. I also found how they involved kids to help out is really cool. Especially kids are our next generation, and they're the ones who are gonna make a change. I feel like our city/state should really look into this since it is a very important issue in our community. — Orit

I think Karen is doing something that most people would just brush off like it's not that big of a problem, but she’s taking the initiative to start changing the river in our city, and it's inspiring a lot of people to join in to help make our city clean, and I think that it's a really cool thing. — Sophia H