CleanUp Day Stats
Thanh -- April 16th, 2009
Event organizers considered the 12th Annual Blacks Run/ Downtown CleanUp Day to be a success thanks to everyone who came out to help that day. Held on the cold and wet morning of Saturday April 11th, it has been reported that over 375 400 people came out to volunteer for CleanUp Day and an astonishing 6,000 lbs of trash was picked up from Blacks Run and city streets.*
Other volunteers that day helped set up and made available a variety of educational exhibits at the GreenScene. Some of the displayers included the Department of Environmental Quality, the Gus Bus, Friendly City Food Co-Op, Buy Fresh Buy Local, Shenandoah Sierra Club, Pure Water Forum, etc. There was also a recycle relay, in which participants raced, spinning five times around a “dizzy bat” and ran back and forth along a course sorting recyclables from trash.
Mayor Kai Degner was also the guest speaker at Kick Off and during his encouraging talk, he led volunteers in a round of jumping jacks! It was a fun day.
What interesting or strange piece of trash did you find on CleanUp Day?
*Picking up trash from city streets helps keep trash out of the storm drains that outfall into Blacks Run and other waterways. Everyone who participated that day helped improve the health of Blacks Run!
Thanh, just wondering, how does this compare to previous years. I had to miss the clean up day b/c it was scheduled over Easter this year and I had plans out of town ;-(
This year we had fewer people compared to the last two previous years. I attribute most of that due to it being Easter Weekend.
For comparison purposes, I want to add that we did not have planting occuring on cleanup day this year. The Stream Health Coordinator this year organized and led plantings of about 250 saplings along Blacks Run the last weekend in April.
Last year (2008) we had over 500 people volunteer and picked up over 4,000 lbs of trash. It was a dry, sunny day then. (wet trash makes for a little heavier trash). We also planted about 600 native plants as well on the same day and did a lot of stream bank maintenance work.
I’ll try to pull up previous stats from years prior when I get back into the office. :)
Oh, also wanted to add that CleanUp Day will ALWAYS be on the SECOND Saturday of April. So go ahead and mark your calendars now! :)
6,000 lbs?! In three hours?! That’s incredible. Thanks to all the volunteers who came out after an early morning rain to combine efforts to make this huge difference. I found a few interesting things Blacks Run myself, and am amazed at the result that so many people doing a little bit can have. I definitely encourage people, groups, and businesses to reserve the second Saturday in April – with more help, we could clear 6,000 lbs next year!
And enjoyed leading the jumping jacks – we needed it that morning.
Glad to hear it went well! Thanks, Thanh!
My brother-in-law found a huge bag of dirty diapers. Ew.
Thanks for a great day!