THE area around Lake Hamilton is looking much cleaner after Baimbridge College Year 9 students spent hours picking up rubbish last Tuesday.

The activity was organised by five students – Mel Gardiner, Maison Hiatt, Isabella Dahl, Ontaj Gould, and Erica Brown – as part of their Community Learning Project (CLP) for their Alpine School for Student Leadership program, which required them to come up with a plan that would benefit their local community.

Under the Alpine School program, Year 9 students from government schools across the state live for nine weeks in Dinner Plain, which enabled them to grow into better citizens and leaders through increased self-awareness, social engagement, community connection and environmental stewardship.

Isabella said the five students had completed months of planning before the event, and were inspired to clean around the Lake after seeing the rubbish build up over time.

“I think a lot of us thought about the lake as we use it a lot for school for Outdoor Ed classes and PE, and it’s just one of the main things in Hamilton that everyone can use,” she said.

“So we wanted to clean it up and show our respect for it … we have picked up a lot of rubbish so there won’t be as much there as there was this morning before we came.”

Mel said that their efforts would not only be appreciated by other members of the community but also by the native wildlife.

“It will be nice for the families not to have a rubbish polluted area and just make it safe, and for the animals as well,” she said.

Maison said his group had picked up four bags of rubbish at the halfway mark and had already received some feedback from passing community members.

“We had a few people walking past saying, ‘thanks for what you’ve done today’,” he said.

“It was just awesome to have the feedback and do this for the community and we’re all having a great time.”

All students had nothing but glowing reviews when it came to the Alpine School, with Erica saying the independence and confidence it provided would be helpful for future endeavours, such as going to university.

Ontaj said anyone thinking of going to Alpine School should jump at the opportunity, with the experience opening his eyes to different forms of learning and leaving him with lifelong friendships.

“When you wake up and see the same people every day for nine weeks, everyone becomes quite close as a community,” he said.

“(We got to) develop new leadership skills and to learn and live in a different environment.”