Schmeekle Final

When I first heard about our service learning project, I had no idea what to do. Eventually I thought of some really cool ideas, but none of them were realistic or something that I would have time to do. But when my partner (Sarah) and I finally thought of something that would both fit our schedules, we were set. We planned to go to the Schmeekle Reserve and volunteer with anything that they needed help with. We found that their main concern was litter. The trails were surprisingly really dirty, but because of that, it provided us with many hours of clearing trails. I feel that I enjoyed doing this project; the people working for Schmeekle were very nice and welcoming and not to mention the fact that we got to get outdoors and explore the area a little. We did experience a couple problems along the way however. Our biggest obstacles to over come were our schedules and the weather. Due to some contradicting times we found it hard to make time in our busy lives to get out there. And of course our lovely Wisconsin weather held us back some days, especially in the early spring. We would plan to go out there one day and then the next day there would be snow on the ground. If I had to change anything about our service learning choice it would have definitely been that. The weather was totally against us. I wouldn't mind doing the project again but I would choose a better time, like the fall. But in the end we managed to scavenge up enough hours to fulfil our service learning project's needs. I think that I got a lot out of this project. For one thing, I got a chance to get to know someone (Sarah). And I learned a lot about the effect of pollution on the environment and how nature adapts to a new season. I thought it was very cool to get to go out to Schmeekle every week and it would look totally different than the week before. Flowers would spring up and trees would begin to bud as the snow melted away. I was very surprised at the amount of litter that we found within the park. I figured people would be more careful, considering that they are in a nature reserve. Overall I had fun doing this project, I thought it was a neat and interesting way to learn outside of the classroom.