I must admit, I wasn’t as enthused as I was last year. The sixth annual city-wide collaboration returned to our previous hosting site at 8th & Poplar, and we had a few hiccups along the way: a few less participants as last year, a technical glitch that missed our site at the pickup center, and a forgotten printed form.
Our cleanup team worked from 9 to 2, picking up everything from used water bottles to sweeping cigarette butts in the masses. One of our volunteers, the lovely Jessica, even joked that the Hurricanes 40s must have been pretty good since there were so many bottles lying around the field. As I looked around, I realized that of the volunteers, I had only known two or three of them one year ago. Between all of these faces I had met through a common sustainable passion within the last 6-8 months: ranging from Meetup, plastic bag efforts, Philadelphia Streets Department (looks like Phil Bresee is keeping his word) and an intern participated.
Although the Streets Department hosts the Philly Spring Cleanup day annually, you don’t have to wait until April to participate. What are some of the other reasons you should start helping out the community?
Readers, have you participated in a cleanup day recently? What was your experience like?
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