Project Clean Stream Spring Season has Kicked Off!

This past Friday, April 1st marked the official kick-off of our 18th annual Project Clean Stream (PCS) season! Every year PCS brings together thousands of volunteers to pick up trash from local streams, creeks, rivers, parks, and neighborhoods throughout the Chesapeake watershed.

So far in April, we have over 50 events registered and 18 of those happened this past weekend with four of them hosted by Alliance staff at each one of our regional offices!

Washington, D.C. Kick-off Event

The first event was hosted by our D.C team on Friday morning with 11 volunteers collecting roughly 75 pounds of trash!

The Alliance supplies the trash grabbers, gloves, and trash bags.

 

D.C. staff members, Carly Starobin and Jordan Gochenaur with their D.C team mascot, Rain, the lovable grayhound in his Alliance t-shirt.

 

More D.C staff walking around the Eastern Market neighborhood near where the D.C office is located.

 

On the right, Retired Director of the Chesapeake Bay Program and Alliance Honorary Director, William Matuszeski (BMAT) helping out!

 

More volunteers working together. Thanks to everyone who came out in D.C to help out!

Richmond, VA Kick-off Event

On Friday afternoon, the Richmond team along with six volunteers got together outside of the office in Manchester and collected roughly 225 pounds of trash around the neighborhood.

VA state director, Nissa Dean welcomed the volunteers and gave an introduction on the Alliance’s work

 

Three employees from Torx Media, who the Richmond office shares a building with came out to help clean up their neighborhood.

 

Students receive their volunteer hours for school also while playing trash bingo.

 

The Virginia team, is all smiles after collecting over 200 pounds of trash!

Annapolis, MD Kick-off Event

Also on Friday afternoon, the Annapolis team along with three community volunteers convened at the headquarters office in Eastport and collected 125 pounds of trash!

Alliance team and community volunteers before cleaning up!

 

Staff members, Emma Gregory and Tim Hudspeth cleaning up along Back Creek

 

The crew together again with the trash they collected!

 

Lancaster, PA Kick-off Event.

Our Lancaster team held their Project Clean Stream event on Saturday along with a tree planting event. Saturday brought together 80 volunteers, planting 850 trees and collecting 975 pounds of trash!

The Pennslyvania team in their matching Alliance hats.

 

PA state director, Jenna Mitchell Beckett helping a volunteer plant a tree

 

We love our new Riparian Buffer signs on our sites.

 

Along with planting trees, volunteers still managed to pick up nearly 1,000 pounds of trash!

 

Thanks to the PA team for organizing such a stellar event.

 

We would like to thank all the Alliance staff and community volunteers who helped us celebrate the beginning of the Project Clean Stream season! Each of you helped prevent trash from entering our local waterways. This may seem like a small gesture but can have a big impact on the waterways that we depend on for our quality of life. Every piece of trash we pick up serves as a reminder that we have a responsibility to protect our shared waterways and to take individual action to fight pollution at the source.

If you’re interested in volunteering at a future Project Clean Stream event, you can view all upcoming events here!