Amy on Park Patrol

Amy on Park Patrol

Amy Purvis spotted an empty plastic water bottle under a tree.

"Found another one!" she called out. She picked it up and put it in her recycling bag.

Amy was volunteering with Park Patrol, a group that cleaned up the Santa Vista Town Park. They met there one Saturday a month. Then they split up into teams to cover different areas.

Another volunteer on Amy's team, Kayla, had a bag for trash.

Jonah had a bag for food waste, like banana peels and apple cores. They would go in the park compost heap.



Amy was in charge of the recycling bag. So far she had found ten empty bottles and cans. The group leader, Mr. Schultz, would turn them in for the bottle deposit. The money would buy more bags and other cleanup supplies.



When the team was done with their rounds, they all gathered around Mr. Schultz.

"Great work, everyone!" said Mr. Schultz.

Amy smiled proudly. She knew lots of wild animals lived in the park, like birds, squirrels, groundhogs, and foxes, so it was important to keep it clean. That morning, her team had even seen a duck nest by the pond. Those baby ducks could have gotten sick from eating people's trash!



Amy checked her watch. It was almost time for her to meet Ellie, Liz, and Marion over at The Critter Club. That was the animal rescue shelter they ran together in their friend Ms. Sullivan's barn.

"Sorry! I have to leave a little early," Amy told Mr. Schultz. "I'll see you next month."



"Okay. Thank you, Amy," said Mr. Schultz. "Next month we'll meet at the other end of the park. There will be some construction starting at this end."

"Construction?" said Jonah.

Mr. Schultz nodded. "The town has decided to build some stores here."

Amy was confused. "But Santa Vista has lots of stores already," she said. "We only have one town park."

"What kind of stores?" a boy named Liam asked.

"I don't know much," said Mr. Schultz. "But I've heard that there will be a health-food store, a frozen yogurt shop, and a bookstore, plus others." He sighed. "At least most of the park will still be here."

Amy froze. Had Mr. Shultz said "bookstore"?



She loved bookstores. The hushed voices and swoosh of turning pages. The smell of brand-new books. Plus, there were sometimes books at the bookstore that the library didn't even have yet.

And this section of the park was kind of wild. It didn't have bike paths or playgrounds or picnic areas. But to Amy, that's what was beautiful about it.



Amy didn't know what to think about this news.

Was it good . . . or bad?

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Excerpted from Amy on Park Patrol by Callie Barkley
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