Eleven Sunnyslope JROTC Cadets cleaned Sumida Park after the annual Fruit Wars in the early morning of Saturday, October 19, according to JROTC Instructor David Malinowski.
Fruit Wars is a notorious tradition by Juniors and Seniors, although it is not sanctioned by Sunnyslope, and is highly discouraged because of its destructive and dangerous nature.
In the past, Fruit Wars tended to leave a huge mess behind, trashing parks with the remaining debris that typically end up rotting in the streets and in the yards of neighboring houses.
After almost an hour of scrubbing sidewalks and picking up squished debris from the streets and neighbors’ yards nearby, cadets removed nearly 200 lbs of egg shells, tomatoes, grapefruit, apples and other miscellaneous objects from the site.
“I think we even picked up a potato or two,” said Malinowski.
One cadet even noted that they found entire pomegranates.
Luckily, all cleaning supplies were provided by school maintenance, which was a huge help given JROTC only had a very big broom of their own.
“There was stuff that had gotten off the curb and onto the road and cars were running over grapefruits… It was just a mess,” Malinowski said.
“We weren’t sure how bad it was,” he continued, “But [Principal Parker] told us there were a couple people calling in and complaining from the neighborhood.”
Malinowski stated that he believed the unsightly state of the park is what prompted the complaints.
“Mr. Parker came to us Friday afternoon looking for clubs that do services,” Malinowski explained.
Since, community service is built into JROTC’s mission of building citizens of character, this cleanup seemed like a great opportunity for cadets because they don’t get many chances to do offsite projects.
“I wasn’t reluctant to volunteer,” said Cadet Kimberly Nasario Alatorre, “I always try to volunteer with whatever I can when it comes to ROTC. I didn’t really mind the clean up [because] it was so last minute.”
Because this cleanup was so last minute, Malinowski worried they wouldn’t be able to get the cadets out there, but plans seemed to work out perfectly.
“It was just a big coincidence that we were able to go out there,” Malinowski explained, “Because in order to drive the kids we needed parental approval, which we already had because we were going to take the kids to their sports challenge, and we just said we would stop by the park on the way,” said Malinowski.
The morning of the cleanup, cadets were originally set to head to the District JROTC Sports Challenge.
“So when Parker told us about the mess, I thought, ‘well we already have a sports challenge that we’re planning to go to and we already have the students and field trip forms signed,’ so that initially allowed us to take the cadets out there,” said Malinowski.
In the end, the park got cleaned and the cadets were happy to play their part.
“The kids did a phenomenal job,” Malinowski noted, “The stains were a lot less noticeable by the time we left.”
The cadets were even treated afterwards, and able to roll into their sports challenge with about 15 minutes for everyone to get to their separate sports events.
A huge thank you to the following Cadets for their services: Orlando Avila Viera, Gustav Durret, Ray Gaskin, Nestor Honomou, Zachary Kilby, Zachary Luyster, Kai Maroney, Kimberly Nasario Alatorre, Jonas Nasario Alatorre, Serenity Rainwater, and Hayden Shults.