WAKULLA COUNTY, FL (WTXL) — Keep Wakulla County Beautiful is launching a youth board to give young residents a voice in how to keep the county clean — and a local teen is helping make it happen.
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Caden Gruebel has been involved with Keep Wakulla County Beautiful (KWCB) for several years. Wanting to help his peers get involved, he took the lead on jumpstarting the new youth board.
"I noticed how much fun I had with being a youth myself within it, and I know that it was something they were discussing for a little bit, so I figured I would like to fire and get a kickstart on it," Gruebel said.
The youth board will hold its own separate meetings to coordinate ideas and organize events aimed at involving young people in cleaning up the county. Gruebel said the perspectives young people bring are distinct — and valuable.
"The older generation, the younger generation have two totally different things. So seeing like the more amount of vapes when cleaning up is one of the biggest things that like I've seen, and just the two different perspectives kind of will help coordinate, even though they might be opposite," Gruebel said.
KWCB Executive Director Tammie Nason said the group's purpose is to educate youth on protecting the environment — something her own generation largely missed.
"When I was younger, we didn't really hear much about the environment, about you know why plastics are important, anything like that, and now we're starting to see the effects from it. So if you teach the youth, they in turn also can relay information to the parents on why it's important, and hopefully the parents will then you know try and follow the example that the youth is actually giving them," Nason said.
Nason said KWCB attempted to start a youth board in 2020, but the effort stalled due to COVID-19.
Gruebel said he is excited to see the group grow and help educate young people about the environment — and about preserving the future of Wakulla County.
"We're the younger ones, so we're kind of the future of Wakulla. So if we start now on cleaning up and getting out there, all these different things, then we'll be able to make sure that it doesn't get worse, and we can actually make it better," Gruebel said.
Youth ages 11–18 are encouraged to attend the founders' meeting on Thursday, July 30, at 6 p.m. at the Wakulla Environmental Institute in Crawfordville.
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