Today we’d like to introduce you to Skyler Kai, Emmett, Isabella, Roshane, and Paxton Rodney.
Hello Skyler Kai, Emmett, Isabella, Roshane, and Paxton, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, you could tell our readers some of your backstories.
We used to clean up the ditches in our neighborhood all by ourselves. And we were getting frustrated with all the trash we saw walking to and from school. So, in 2020 we created the West Augustine Nature Society, which was just our family and a couple of neighbors cleaning up the streets around us.
Overwhelmed by the amount of trash we collected and the amount still left and constantly accumulating, we decided to host an MLK Day clean-up event. We were fortunate that the Interact Club from St. Augustine High School came out to join us. This event was the catalyst for how we now organize clean-ups in our community because we discovered just how much trash we could collect when we got help from other organizations. After the event, we had a mountain of trash left in front of the local elementary school that we did not know how to get rid of since we would usually bring the trash home to our trash cans.
This was when we reached out to the county, and we were contacted by Mr. Matthew Denny, the outreach coordinator for the St. Johns County Public Works Solid Waste Division, and he helped us become a part of the St. Johns County Adopt-A-Road program. Mr. Denny helps us get rid of the trash we collect, and he also lends us safety vests and grabbers and provides us with trash bags, all of which have been a tremendous help.
The leadership of the society is still just us five siblings and our friends Kaleigha and Ahmerrius Spikes. Still, our success is due to the incredible support from the community, especially the support we have received from the numerous local organizations, clubs, businesses, and churches that partner with us on each event.
At the 2022 MLK Day event, we had more than 100 cars parked around Webster Elementary School for the event, and we collected more than 1,500 pounds of trash. Afterward, many volunteers joined us downtown for the Silent March, honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement in St. Augustine. Not only did we win the award for having the most youth at the march, but Ben & Jerry’s on St. George Street gave free ice cream to everyone who had volunteered at our event.
In addition to organizing clean-up events in our West Augustine community, we also focus on education and prevention. We attend local events, where we sign up families for our email list and talk about how to stop littering from happening in the first place. We also give away plants and trees at these events, at our clean-ups, and every Christmas, we walk around our neighborhood and give out free plants and trees to our neighbors.
We are currently planning our 2023 MLK Day of Service Clean-Up event. This will be held in collaboration with the West Augustine Improvement Association because we will be cleaning up in and around the Pinehurst and San Sebastian Cemeteries, two of Florida’s oldest African American cemeteries. We already have six local community organizations and churches signed up to partner with us. We are incredibly grateful for the extraordinary support we have received in our mission to keep our community green despite the growing development, deforestation, and littering in our neighborhood.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has been a struggle to get participation from our immediate community. Still, at our most recent event, we were thankful to have a majority of residents at the event. The most disheartening thing and the biggest obstacle in our way is the constant littering in our community’s streets. We can clean up an entire street, and the next day we will return and find new trash having been dumped.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are five siblings living in a low-income community in St. Augustine, Florida.
Skyler Kai Rodney: President of the West Augustine Nature Society and wetland and waterways manager, 16 years old, Junior at St. Augustine High School, St. Augustine, FL.
Emmett Rodney: Vice President of the West Augustine Nature Society. Website and social media manager 13 years old, 8th Grader at R.J. Murray Middle School, St. Augustine, FL.
Roshane Rodney: Secretary of the West Augustine Nature Society. Twenty years old, a sophomore at Flagler College, St Augustine, FL.
Isabella Rodney: Community outreach manager. Of the West Augustine Nature Society. 9 years old, 3rd grade, Veritas Classical School, St. Augustine, FL.
Paxton Rodney: Community outreach assistant of the West Augustine Nature Society. 3 years old.
How do you define success?
-Having a high turnout rate from both inside and outside the local community
-Seeing less trash out in the streets of West Augustine
-Bagging as much trash as we can during our events
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.westaugustinenaturesociety.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/westaugustinenaturesociety/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100079782750635
Image Credits
Sine Rodney- Photographer
