Partners for Clean Streams is excited to announce that registration for the 20th Annual Clean Your Streams Day on September 17th will be open soon! Register yourself, your family, a group of coworkers, your church group, or any group of people you know would enjoy cleaning local streams! The day begins with check-in from 8:00-8:30am at the 8 kick-off locations around northwest Ohio including Olander Park in Sylvania, Monroe St. Methodist Church in Toledo, Woodlands Park in Perrysburg, and Oregon Municipal Building in Oregon. A brief orientation begins at 8:30am followed by instructions for the cleanup, safety tips, and supply distribution. Following that, your group will leave the kick-off location to go to your assigned site to clean until 12:00pm. After the streams have been beautified, volunteers are invited to the Appreciation Picnic where we celebrate your accomplishments, eat lunch, raffle off prizes, and award challenge winners.
Ever since the inaugural Clean Your Streams Day in 1997, the program has grown in number of participants, community partners, and environmental impact. In 20 years, 10,065 volunteers have participated in Clean Your Streams and they collectively have cleaned 239,977 pounds of trash from northwest Ohio waterways – equaling 120 tons, which is equivalent to 18 male African elephants or 10,000 adult walleye! Clean Your Streams is a great opportunity to come together as a community to collect trash and debris from our streams, rivers, and lakes, which we all depend upon for recreation, livelihood, and drinking water. Look for updates regarding registration soon, on social media and our website. Register by September 11th to let us know you will be joining us for this special day in our history!