Elizabeth Reed: Woman on a mission; KSB executive director visits all 65 second-grade classrooms in Sevier

Elizabeth Reed, executive director of Keep Sevier Beautiful, reads a story about littering to Terry Terry’s second-grade class at Northview Primary School Wednesday. (Curt Habraken/The Mountain Press) Read more: The Mountain Press - Elizabeth Reed Woman on a mission KSB executive director visits all 65 second grade classrooms in Sevier

By RACHEL OSBORN

Staff Writer

KODAK — By the end of the week Elizabeth Reed, executive director of Keep Sevier Beautiful, will have visited all 65 second-grade classrooms in the county.

Her mission, along with others in the organization, is to educate the students on how they can make a difference in their community.

“If you saw a piece of trash on the ground, what would you do?” she asks Terry Terry’s class at Northview Primary.

“Pick it up!” the class yells in response.

“That’s right,” says Reed. “And then throw it away or recycle it.”

One student found littering extremely upsetting. “Trash everywhere is bad for the Earth,” she says.

But, Reed wanted to make sure students understood that litterers aren’t always bad people. “They didn’t put it there to be mean or evil,” says Reed. “They just don’t know any better.”

To explain littering in a way that the kids would understand, Reed compared the Earth to their bedroom. “You know how your mom gets upset before company comes over and she makes you clean your room,” she says. “Sevier County is one big room. We need to clean it up.”

Driving the point home, Reed stressed how many visit this room (Sevier County) each year. “Thirteen million people come to our room,” she says. “Our room is really cool. We need to keep our room clean to keep it cool.”

Following her educational lesson, Reed read a story to the class. The book, titled Retrieving with EVIE, follows a puppy through day-to-day life.

EVIE, an acronym for Every Volunteer Is Essential, is unlike other dogs her age. She is extremely interested in retrieving trash, recycling and cleaning up her hometown. EVIE goes to a local river with her family for an afternoon filled with swimming. Instead of enjoying the water, EVIE spends her time cleaning up.

Afterward, the family gets lunch from a fast food restaurant. While in the drive-through EVIE notices someone drop their paper bag out their car window and drive away. Then, on the drive home EVIE sticks her head out the car window to enjoy some fresh air, like most dogs do. She is struck by a cigarette butt flung from the vehicle in front of her. EVIE does whatever she can to clean up her community.

After the book, Reed introduces the campaign’s slogan to the class: three a day, the EVIE way. Then she and the students pledge to help EVIE keep Sevier beautiful. “I promise to do my best to pick up three a day the EVIE way in my room, in my county, in my state, in my country and on the Earth,” Reed recites.

Under this contract, the students promise to pick up three pieces of trash each day. “Can you guys help EVIE?” she asks the class. “It’s not hard. We’re asking for three a day, not 3,333. If every second-grader picks up three a day, our county will be so clean. It will practically be glittering.”

Then Reed passes out educational coloring books, crayons and sunflower seeds for the students to plant. For Terry she has a copy of the book signed by the author and EVIE.

Overall, Reed found the day to be a good experience.

“The second-graders are so awesome,” she says. “Everything is so black and white with them. We have a promise to pick up three a day, the EVIE way.”

Read more: The Mountain Press – Elizabeth Reed Woman on a mission KSB executive director visits all 65 second grade classrooms in Sevier