RESERVE — To help keep her community clean, one teenager takes pride in participating in St. John the Baptist Parish’s semiannual Clean Sweep.

Cobi Smith, 17, a senior at Riverside Academy in Reserve, said her mother, Jaclyn Hotard, was the first person who got her interested in the community clean-up day.

“I used to do it with my mom when I was younger,” Smith said. “I missed a few years because of conflicting events, but this past year we got the whole student council (at Riverside Academy) to go.”

Smith said it was fun to participate with a group of her friends.

Clean Sweep is a parish-wide clean-up involving hundreds of volunteers from schools, government agencies, churches, civic organizations, homeowner associations and industry. Clean Sweep targets major thoroughfares for cleaning.

“They do it twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall,” Smith said. “We meet up at the park on new 51. People from all over the community participate; school groups, clubs and public officials come. Its nice to see everyone coming together to do something good for the community.”

Smith feels like it’s everyone’s job to help out the community.

“It’s really sad to see how much trash is actually there, and you just think, ‘who are these people that are doing this?’” Smith said. “Then you come out and see all those people trying to fix the problem, and it is really nice to see everyone working together.”

Smith said participating in the clean up day is a “pride thing.”

“You should want to go out and better your community,” Smith said. “I love where I live, and I would like to see it clean all the time.”

Participates are given all the tools they need for the clean up.

“There’s all kinds of things on the ground like candy wrappers and bottles,” Smith said.

“People throw things on the ground, thinking ‘oh it’s just one little candy wrapper, it won’t hurt.’ But if everyone’s doing it, pretty soon it’s hundreds of little candy wrappers.”

Parish officials and the Keep St. John Beautiful Committee are registering volunteers for the Fall Clean Sweep, which starts at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 19 at Thomas F. Daley Memorial Park. They with distribute garbage bags, gloves, trash clamps and T-shirts.

Sign up in advance at sjbparish.com or call Dana Milioto at 985-652-9569 for more information.

“Unless there is something else really major happening that I can’t miss, I plan to be out there this fall for the Clean Sweep,” Smith said.

At Riverside Academy, Smith is an honor roll student. She is an active member in the Drama Club, Senior Representative for the Student Council, Mu Alpha Theta Secretary and Beta Club Secretary.

She is a member of the band and lettered in Cheerleading. She also plays music for veterans at the VA in Reserve, dresses as the Easter Bunny for the Parish Easter Egg Hunts, volunteers for Bible Camp and has participated on Relay for Life teams to raise money for cancer awareness.

Smith plans to major in pre-law or broadcast journalism and would love to attend NYU.

“She is an outstanding student,” said assistant principal Ronda Perkins. “She is involved in so much, and is always ready to help.”

— By Raquel Derganz Baker