Students Clean Up Long Wharf Park

Fifty middle and high school students descended on Long Wharf Park Sunday for a trash cleanup organized by 19-year-old Gabriela Garcia-Perez, a current first-year University of New Haven student.

Garcia-Perez, the founder of the Community Integration Mentoring Program, told the Independent that she started the program four years ago with just one town. That number has now grown to five: Guilford, Madison, East Haven, New Haven and North Branford. High schoolers within the organization act as mentors for middle school students, many of whom are English Language Learners and also use the group to help with their English proficiency.

“This [program] is something that has really helped tremendously during times of Covid. Being that our students aren’t in schools, they’re not seeing their friends as often. So this is a way for them to reach out to each other and get involved and do something,” Garcia-Perez said.

For this event specifically, the organization reached out to New Haven public school students specifically. The community service hours could count towards the 40 hours needed to receive the New Haven PROMISE scholarship, which can cover up to full tuition at Connecticut state colleges and universities.

“A lot of the students have to do 40 hours of volunteer work and because of the pandemic this is extremely difficult,” said Daniel Díaz, parent engagement project coordinator for the New Haven Public School’s system. ​“So this is an amazing opportunity for them to make up the last few hours that they need volunteer work so they can get the New Haven PROMISE. So when this opportunity came up, I was like, ​‘Oh my God, this is a great thing to do for the students in New Haven while they also clean up the environment.’”

Rachel Ellison, a junior at Guilford High School, has been involved in CIMP as a mentor for the past two years. Along with Nick Celotto, a senior at Guilford High School, she was a team leader for a group of middle and high-schoolers taking part in the trash cleanup.
​“It’s just really great because we can connect to the kids through mentoring them, but also just through programs like this, where you’re picking up the beach, but it’s also just a great way to make relationships with them,” Ellison said.

She called the younger kids involved Sunday ​“super eager.”

“And more interested than I thought they would be in actually picking up the trash and not just messing it up. So that’s great,” she said.

Celotto, who got involved in January 2020 through his church, added that they chose an event that emphasizes the environmen because ​“we work with little kids and we thought by doing this with them, it would show them like set an example for them of what they should be doing in their future.”

He also emphasized the importance of the program’s additional component of helping improve English proficiency.

“For these kids to have these skills to be able to speak English language growing up in this country will set them up drastically for job opportunities and just meeting people from around the country.”

For some people, the trash clean-up was a family affair. UNH staffer Tiffany Martinez brought her two daughters, Maya Martinez, a senior at Amistad High School in New Haven, and Amera Rogers, a student at Amistad Elementary School, to ​“help do our part in the community.”

While the beach was pretty clean overall, according to Martinez, they were able to find ​“some things.”