Cleaning Up Lake Anna Via Kayak
When the power of youth with guidance comes together, the results can be truly amazing. This is exactly what happened on Wednesday, September 13 during an asynchronous learning day for 18 Blue Ridge Virginia Governor’s School students attending Louisa County High School.
On asynchronous days, students are given flexibility. This gives students the opportunity to build their own schedules, which simulates life in the real world. Asynchronous days help to build time management skills, and how to plan a schedule to be most successful in a day.
Hannah Ryan, 17, daughter of LCHS Guidance Counselor Todd Ryan, was the organizer of a special effort to clean up a section of Lake Anna. At 9 am, she, her parents and her grandmother as well as 17 other Governor’s School students gathered at Lake Anna Outfitters at High Point Marina to begin a day of community service.
Hannah and her crew planned to pick up litter along the Rt. 208 via kayak and canoe as part of her Senior Capstone Project for Governor’s School that was focused on conservation of aquatic ecosystems – each student must have such a project to complete the program.
“We had 18 people attend the lake cleanup, which I chose to organize as the community service portion of my project. I created permission slips and distributed them to my classmates, all of whom were very excited to help and had a great time,” Ryan told Life & Times.
Over the course of about four hours, her hard-working crew removed over 500 pounds of litter from the lake and shoreline. She noted that some of the most common items were hats and plastic bottles, while the most interesting finds included a tire, buoys and couch cushions.
“These young people showed up happy, worked hard and I even heard them singing and laughing as they paddled in after the final load. I’m encouraged for the future by their example of community service and leadership,” noted C.C. McCotter, proprietor of Lake Anna Outfitters, which provided the kayaks and canoes free of charge for the effort.
Hannah was assisted by Environmental Science teacher Becky Kazio, Environmental Science teacher Cary Varner, her mother; Megan Ryan and her grandmother; Sharon Ryan and Jeremy Kazio, who volunteered his fishing boat to ferry trash to the dock at High Point. Ernie and Shannon King let Ryan borrow their pick up to haul the trash.
