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Students seek to beautify Pine Hills through cleanup

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Students in Orange County’s Pine Hills community not only want safer streets, they want cleaner streets. So they’ve chosen to be the change.

A group of 100 Robinswood Middle School students and staff members has committed to cleaning up almost 2,000 parcels in a neighborhood that’s been plagued by crime.

In some parts of Pine Hills, garbage has piled along roads and sidewalks.

“A lot of garbage,” resident Jacob Fullerton said. “People [throw] things out their window as they drive down the street.”

Resident Nicolas Antonio said he prefers to see change.

“We want to feel like we are safe,” Antonio said. “And that the environment that we live in is clean.”

So the Robinswood Archers aren’t waiting for someone else to spruce up their community. They’ve decided to take action through a cleanup scheduled for Saturday morning.

The event is aimed to develop within students a sense of pride in their community, said Karla Hadley, the school’s assistant principal.

“With all the negativity we’ve been hearing on the news, we wanted to bring something positive to the neighborhood,” she said. “You’ll see them out having fun as well as cleaning up their community.”

And Hadley said she hopes her students’ desire to step up moves others to join in on their effort.

Volunteers will meet at the school at 8 a.m.