Iroquois School District Students Recognized for Removing Nearly a Ton of Litter from Four Mile Creek During their 9/11 Memorial Day of Service
Iroquois students with the litter and debris collected.
~ Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful and community partners recognize students for reducing litter and promoting stewardship ~
(January 16, 2026)
A public recognition ceremony for Iroquois High School students was held today at the school. The students were honored with a Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful certificate of participation for their involvement in the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) for a litter cleanup on Lake Erie Region Conservancy property in Wesleyville Borough. The International Coastal Cleanup is an initiative to keep trash from reaching our waterways and oceans.
With funding from the Department of Environmental Protection’s Coastal Resource Management program, Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, the Pennsylvania state coordinator for ICC, partnered with Wesleyville Borough, Lake Erie Region Conservancy, the Regional Science Consortium at TREC, and Keep Erie County Beautiful to work alongside Iroquois High School students to clean up litter and debris from Conservancy property in Wesleyville Borough.
On September 11, during Iroquois School District’s 9/11 Memorial Day of Service, forty-seven Iroquois students joined forces to remove nearly 2,000 pounds of litter and debris from adjacent land, stream bank, and bed of Four Mile Creek. The cleanup took place on property owned by the Lake Erie Region Conservancy and was made possible through partnerships with Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, Keep Erie County Beautiful, Wesleyville Borough, Lake Erie Region Conservancy, and the Regional Science Consortium at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center.
“This cleanup shows what’s possible when communities, schools, and local organizations unite for a common cause. By removing nearly a ton of litter from Four Mile Creek, these students and partners not only restored the environment and safeguarded wildlife, they proved the power of collaboration in protecting the places we all value,” said Don Benczkowski, Program Coordinator, Lake Erie Region, Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful.
Iroquois High School is also a proud participant in Litter Free School Zone, a program of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful that encourages students to take ownership of their campus and surrounding community by promoting litter prevention and environmental stewardship. This cleanup is a powerful example of how those values extend beyond the classroom.
The Litter Free School Zone Program is open to all public and private schools in Pennsylvania. Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful has partnered with the Regional Science Consortium (RSC) at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center through their Clean Marinas initiative to support Litter Free School Zones in Erie County. As part of this collaboration, RSC will visit new Litter Free School Zones, present the Clean Marinas program, and deliver supplies for the school’s first litter cleanup.
Other Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful initiatives in the Erie region include installing litter-control devices in Presque Isle Bay and at Erie Water Works, adding cigarette litter prevention infrastructure at several marinas, and displaying anti-litter messaging at several Presque Isle State Park beaches, all designed to reduce litter, foster environmental stewardship, and protect the local ecosystem. To learn more about Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful visit keeppabeautiful.org.
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About Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful
Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful’ s vision is a clean and beautiful Pennsylvania. Since 1990, Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful has worked with hundreds of thousands of volunteers across the state to pick up nearly 162 million pounds of trash from Pennsylvania’s roadways, waterways, greenways, vacant lots, forestlands and other community spaces. Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful’s core programming focuses on litter and illegal dump prevention, cleanup, community greening, and proper waste handling and sustainable practices. Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful works with many partnering organizations on the state and grassroots level to accomplish our goal of a clean and beautiful Pennsylvania. Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful is the state affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, Inc., the nation’s largest volunteer-based community action and education organization. To learn more about Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, visit www.keeppabeautiful.org.
