Big Clean = Another Big Success!
Pose for the drone! Team Collinwood gathers with our haul for the day. It took a drone flying overhead to capture just how much trash we picked up!
Last month, Collinwood and Euclid neighbors came out in force Saturday April 21st to clean up their streets! The second annual Big Clean is street cleanup with a competitive twist -Collinwood and Euclid compete to collect the most bags of street litter! While the competition gets fierce, the Big Clean is also about the importance of strong collaboration between our two communities and it simply wouldn’t have been possible without so many partners and supporters!
After three hours of cleanup, and hundreds of bags of trash later, volunteers returned to Villa Angela High School for a post cleanup celebration, won some awesome neighborhood raffle prizes, heard remarks from Euclid Mayor Kirsten Holzheimer Gail and Councilman Mike Polensek and jammed to tunes provided by WINT/1330 radio!
When all was said and done, 310 bags of trash were collected by close to 200 volunteers! What a day! Euclid edged out Collinwood again in the litter bag count 174 to 136, but with only 60 out of the nearly 200 volunteers on the Collinwood team, I think we punched well above our weight! And remember, both communities are big winners. Don’t worry Collinwood, we will always have a chance for redemption at the Big Clean 2019!
Special thanks to Villa Angela- St. Joseph High School (VASJ) for hosting the event once again and connecting us with VASJ student volunteers who helped guide volunteers in and out of the school all morning. Big thanks also to Court Community Service and the Euclid Service Department for collecting trash bags and throughout both cities and running a Euclid street sweeper along Lakeshore down to East 140th Street!
The Big Clean 2018 would not have been possible without financial, volunteer, and in-kind support of the City of Euclid, Keep Euclid Beautiful, The Euclid Beach Adopt-A-Beach Team, Court Community Service , and the Litterbugz. Finally, thanks to our determined neighbors, church congregations, and business owners of Collinwood and Euclid for supporting this event and coming out in force! For more pics and videos of this year’s event, search #thebigclean2018 on Facebook and Instagram. If you attended this year’s cleanup and took any photos/videos, please use the hashtag #thebigclean2018 when you post to social media.
Can’t wait a whole year to get in on all the cleanup action? You don’t have to! Visit Facebook.com/AdoptEuclidBeach to check out how you can get involved with neighborhood street and beach cleanups. See our 2018 Saturday cleanup schedule below.
May 19th - Beach cleanup at Euclid Beach Park 11am-1pm
July 21st - Beach cleanup at Euclid Beach Park 11am-1pm
August 18th - Street cleanup along Lakeshore Blvd. 11am-1pm (meet at Collinwood Rec Center 16300 Lakeshore Blvd. 44110)
September 15th - International Coastal Cleanup Day at Euclid Beach Park 11am-1pm
October 27th - A Halloween themed street cleanup along Lakeshore Blvd. 11am-1pm (meet at Collinwood Rec Center 16300 Lakeshore Blvd. 44110 and don't be afraid to come in costume!)
November 3rd - Street cleanup location TBD with students from Case Western Reserve University 11am-1pm
Also, if you and your neighbors would like to do your own litter cleanup, let us know so we can hook you up with gloves, bags and more!
For more information or questions about cleanups, contact Stephen Love or Dan Subwick at adopt.euclidbeach@gmail.com or call 216-571-0685.
Stephen Love
Stephen Love is a Lake Erie fanatic from Cleveland, OH. In his day job he works for the Cuyahoga Land Bank and in every other waking moment is the founder and coordinator of Euclid Beach Adopt-a-Beach Team and Euclid Beach Blast! He started Euclid Beach Blast out of a desire to explore the connections between environmental stewardship, art, public spaces, music, and community.