The numbers don’t lie – sometimes the biggest impact is the seeing the total pounds of trash in black and white that CYS volunteers are able to pick up in a three-hour span. The total number helps us show the prevalence of marine debris in our local waterways and gauge whether litter is overall improving, remaining the same, or getting better.  However, we can also break down the data to understand what is going on at specific sites such as illegal dumping, dead wildlife, single-use plastic items, etc.  Data cards serve as an educational tool to effect real change.  Clean Your Streams Day is a critical program in the reduction of marine debris, but also the prevention of it through education.  

Clean Your Streams doesn’t have to only last a day!  The Ocean Conservancy has developed a free app – Clean Swell, that works as an electronic data card.  Next time you’re out at a site and it is less than pristine, you can pull up the app, pick up the trash, and automatically log it into the International Coastal Conservancy database (the same one we use for CYS!).  You can see what other groups are finding, who else is doing a cleanup nearby or in another country.  Technology helps connect us as we all struggle to support healthy rivers, lakes, and oceans.  Consider downloading Clean Swell and track your trash or treasure!

The waterways around Toledo are the real winners of CYS, but thanks to our door prize donors, some volunteers were winners, too!  Fin, Feather, Fur Outfitters and Earnest Brew works donated gift sets; the Toledo Zoo donated an annual family membership; African Safari Wildlife Park gifted PCS 2 8-person vouchers; Olander Park offered a free shelter rental; Lucas Soil & Water Conservation District and Paige Sloma put in hand-painted rain barrels with diverter attachments for the raffle; and the Toledo Mud Hens and Walleye showed their support for clean streams with tickets to their respective events this season. Thanks for making the raffle so much fun!  We would also like to thank Don Zellers from WSPD for agreeing to MC the Appreciation Picnic.  He did a great job and kept everyone on schedule.

Our CYS planning team members work on this program for months to ensure that we have enough volunteers, sites, donations, and support to make CYS successful.  Thanks to our amazing planning team:  Marilyn DuFour (City of Toledo), Bryan Twitchell (Monroe St. United Methodist Church), Tim Neiderkorn (UT), Deanna Bobak (CEC), Randy Nissen (TECHS), Erika Buri and Danielle Marino (Olander Park System), Kristin Jenkins and Matt Beil (Hull Inc.), Andrea Beard and Don Nelson (City of Oregon), Lauren Rush (City of Perrysburg), Kevin Laughlin (Wood County Engineers), Bob Neubert (Lucas County Engineers), and Eileen Mitchell (City of Toledo).  Thanks for making all the meetings, emails, recon missions, printing, and brainstorming all the minor and major issues that we had along the way.

And last but not least, we are so overwhelmed by the quantity and quality of our volunteers. We had a huge number of registrants this year and such a great turnout on Saturday, September 22^nd. The willingness to work for our waterways and remove marine debris was apparent by the sheer volume of trash collected that day.  Thank you for taking time out of your busy life to volunteer to beautify our community and improve local water quality.  Partners for Clean Streams is nothing without our volunteers and we greatly appreciate your dedication to this program.  Please remember that you can continue to support clean streams year round by donating to PCS or signing up for one of our other programs.