WTD 2018: Troop 551’s creek cleanup
- GSCO blog
- Mar 20, 2018
- 2 min read
Submitted by Clair M.
Pikes Peak
Colorado Springs
Saturday, March 17, 2018 was a beautiful day for Troop 40551’s World Think Day 2018 : Creek Cleanup. Each year, World Thinking Day has a different theme that Girl Guides and Girl Scouts around the world can learn about and take action on. This year we focused on: MAKE AN IMPACT! by hosting a super fun global impact event to help the Sand Creek Watershed!
Our fabulous Girl Scouts got together to motivate one another to make a positive change in our community. It was such a great day!! All ages were welcome.
Girl Scouts came for an interactive learning experience, and brought their friends and families to join in, as they rolled up their sleeves and worked together to take-action and clean-up a section of Sand Creek and the adjoining trail. Girl Scout Daisies and Brownies along with other littler ones kept to cleaning nearest the trail. Juniors, Cadettes, Seniors, and Ambassadors along with other volunteers ventured to the areas directly adjacent to the trail (without going into the water), picking up larger debris, depending on their comfort levels. And most importantly, we did it all while trying to make it as fun as possible to collect trash. We just might have been part of Girl Scouts first Super Hero TRASH MOB!
Lowes donated hauling carts and trash bags. The Neighborhood Services Code Enforcement Unit donated a 30-yard dumpster. Onsite we had representatives/booths from WAGGS, Rocky Mountain Field Institute, Trails Open Space Coalition and CSP Water Resources Engineering Division.
These people took the time to interact with Girl Scouts/volunteers to educate attendees in how to be a part of the solution, instead of part of the problem. And some were even interested in becoming part of the cities Adopt-A-Waterway Program. Here are the estimated results of the cleanup:
– Number of volunteers: 175 – Hours of volunteerism: 4 hours window equates to 612 hours of labor – Value of volunteer hours: $14,785.75 – 23 cubic yards of trash were collected – Pounds/Tons of litter Removed: 3,800 pounds/ 1.9 tons
Seeing the excitement when shown how to make an impact, helped make our WTD Creek Cleanup a great experience! Thank you to all the Girl Scouts, their friend and families, for working so hard and to make our community a better place.
We would love to share our experiences with you at our next Creek Cleanup Event -especially with Earth Day coming soon.
Let’s get outdoors, get active, and create some good for our community because our watersheds need helping hands! Troop 40551, imagines every time we do a creek cleanup, we should pull out our super hero costumes and have fun!! #GirlScoutsareSuperHeroes
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