April 27, 2016—On Earth Day, April 22, a group of students and staff from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health participated in the Boston Shines Neighborhood Clean-up. The group of seven cleaned up a city-owned lot on the corner of Wait St. and Pequot St. in Boston’s Mission Hill neighborhood.
Ra’Shaun Nalls, Associate Director of Community Engagement at the Harvard Chan School, helped organize the event and said that residents were appreciative of the clean-up effort. “Events like these are just one of the many ways for us to be better neighbors in Mission Hill,” he said.
The student participants were Augusta Williams, Jacquelyn Jahn, and Lauren Kasperak. Staff participants were Nancy Perna, Blake Worall, and Kierstyn Callahan from the Office of Education.
“In my classes and research, I’ve learned how access to clean and safe green space improves health and well-being for those who live around and interact with this space,” said Williams, a doctoral student in the Department of Environmental Health. “This event was a great way to do my part in acting on that knowledge and cleaning up a small park in our own neighborhood.”
Photos: Ra’Shaun Nalls