Earth Week 2022 Recap
Earth Week 2022 is a wrap! Over the span of five days, we were at a Bingo Fundraiser, our Executive Director was interviewed on live TV, we had a largest cleanup event to date, we assisted at an after school program for their Earth Day activity, and we participated in a partner organization’s cleanup and beautification event. We are definitely in the “Earth Day Every Day” camp, but we can’t handle too many weeks like last week, at least not with our current staffing. (If you are interested in volunteering with us, send us an email!) It was a fantastic week though, and we are incredibly thankful for everybody who turned out for our events.
Charity Bar Bingo
When we saw The Pizza Bandit’s announcement in February that they would be starting Charity Bingo nights for nonprofits at the Yellow Cab Tavern, we contacted them right away and got on the calendar for the week of Earth Day. For an hour and a half, Pizza Pardner Brian called the bingo numbers for six rounds, we sold 50/50 raffle tickets, with the winner receiving $116 (and they proceeded to donate a portion of their winnings back to WFD), and sold a few of our shirts and magnets. Everybody who attended seemed to have a great time. We certainly did! Thanks to Brian and The Pizza Bandit and the Yellow Cab for their generosity and support, and for caring about the community.
Good Day Dayton
On Wednesday morning, we were invited back to Good Day Dayton for a second time to talk about our Earth Day Litter Cleanup events. Natalie did a great job! We are looking forward to being back on the show in the future. You can watch the 4 minute interview here: https://dayton247now.com/good-day-dayton/earth-04-20-2022
Earth Day Litter Cleanup
For the second year in a row, we held our Earth Day litter cleanup event on Hamilton Avenue in the Historic Inner East Neighborhood of Dayton. We have done several cleanup events along this street and the abandoned railroad tracks in the past year, and will continue to come back as needed. We had fantastic weather in the afternoon, although maybe a little too hot for April (at least two volunteers got a little sunburned). Our 20 volunteers picked up 40 bags of trash, and over 40 tires during the two hour event. This was our biggest single cleanup event in our short history! We were finally able to meet some folks who we’ve been connected to online for awhile, and we were really thrilled to connect with new volunteers who showed up to help.
Cleveland Elementary Event
An hour after our Earth Day cleanup event ended, Natalie and Brett headed over to Cleveland Elementary in Linden Heights to give a short talk to the kids in their After School program, followed by a cleanup event in the adjacent Cleveland Park. It was great to see the kids so enthusiastic about picking up trash! This was our first presentation at a school, and certainly not our last.
Earth Dayton 2022 Beautification Event
On Saturday morning, we brought a few volunteers to I Love West Dayton’s beautification event in the Westwood neighborhood of Dayton. Several organizations came together to partner on this event, and the impact made by the forty or so volunteers was apparent at the conclusion. One group weeded, mowed, and cleared trash from Wesley Park, another group worked at another site nearby, while a third group picked up trash in the surrounding neighborhood. After all the work, the volunteers enjoyed pizza for lunch. Congratulations to Chaz and ILWD for another fantastic event!
Counting the Dayton Inspires cleanup at the beginning of April and ILWD’s event, we participated in four cleanup events during the month. We hope to resume our monthly cleanup events in May, but not before we took a couple of weeks to rest and recharge. There are many other cleanup events going on throughout Dayton over the next few weeks as part of the Living City Project. Check out the list of events and see if any of the neighborhood cleanups provide a spark for you to take action.