Chabad Club Teaches Respect for Environment

VENTURA, CA — Imagine 25 people excited to see garbage. So it was for the CHEVRE, Conejo Hikers Enjoying Ventura’s Rural Environs, members from Oak Park Chabad, as they walked and cleaned the Medea Creek Trail on Jan. 23 in honor of Jewish Arbor Day (Tu B’Shevat).

“The main goal of the club is to teach kids to respect the environment around us and the Conejo Valley,” said Harry Medved, of Oak Park, the club’s founder.

He said the club started about a year ago, when he was walking to the synagogue every Saturday, enjoying the sounds of woodpeckers and blue jays, and watching the mallards, rabbits and squirrels.

“Suddenly there would be a Gatorade bottle and it was, ‘What? Wait, what’s wrong with this picture?’” Medved asked.

He was also inspired by an older couple who he saw every morning walking and picking up trash. So his two girls, Shoshana, 8, and Aviva, 6, came up with the acronym of CHEVRE for the group.

“It’s really good to pick up trash,” Shoshana said. “It helps the environment. We want everything to be clean for nature.”

Rebecca Oddes, 7, of Oak Park came out to the event in January with her parents and 5-year-old brother.

“We’re cleaning up for God,” she said. “This is God’s planet and we want to help him.”

Marc Franklin of Oak Park brought his three children, ages 4, 6 and 8.

“I love getting my kids out to do this,” Franklin said. “This is all about appreciating your neighborhood and what we have here. I love this area. I’ve been here 30 years and it takes a little bit of effort to help keep it clean.”

Following the hike, the youngsters received wilderness stickers donated from the stationery store, Treasured Memories, followed by a cookout at Chaparral Park, where they talked about their upcoming events.

On March 6, the club will meet in honor of Women’s History Month, celebrating the achievements of local women activists who fought to protect open space areas like Palo Comado Canyon, Upper Las Virgenes Canyon, Paramount Ranch and King Gillette Ranch. There will be an eight-mile hike and bike event for adults, with members meeting at 7:30 a.m. at Doubletree trailhead of Palo Comado, with shuttle for return. At 4 p.m. families will meet at Chaparral Park for a Medea Creek clean-up walk and potluck dinner cook-out.

On April 3, CHEVRE members will hike and clean Lower Medea Creek Trail in Oak Park, and on May 1 they will tackle Malibu Creek State Park Trail in Calabasas (meeting in the second lower parking lot).

“Although CHEVRE was started through Chabad, this is not just a Jewish club,” Medved said. “We really would like more people to be involved, kids particularly. It’s always disheartening to see that little black splotch on that perfect masterpiece of nature when you find a bottle cap. I’d like to think that maybe people didn’t know the bottle fell out of their knapsack. But when you walk along Medea Creek, it’s hard to believe the Vodka bottle just fell out of someone’s hands and shattered into a million pieces.

”Another reason for doing this is I hope the next generation will have a little bit more caring consideration for our neighborhood,“ Medved said. ”So if they are planning to party in the creek, which I wish they wouldn’t, maybe they’ll take their Vodka bottle home with them.”