Calling all K-8 students! Sharpen your pencils, crayons, paintbrushes, grab some fresh paper, and sketch out marine debris impacts on the Great Lakes or what you are doing to prevent marine debris. The NOAA Marine Debris Art Contest is open until December 15th. The winners are determined by a panel of NOAA awards panel. The selected 13 winners of the Art Contest will be featured in NOAA Marine Debris 2022 calendar. Students in grades K-8 in from all U.S. states and territories in federally recognized public, private, and home schools. For full contest and submission requirements click here.
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There are many ways to donate directly to support Partners for Clean Streams – on Facebook, our website, or click Donate at the top of the newsletter- but you can shop and support us too! This holiday season link your Kroger card or Amazon Smiles account to donate to PCS. Both Amazon and Kroger donate a percentage of what you purchase to us at no extra cost to you! That means your holiday shopping goes the extra mile. Your loved one receives a good meal and a great gift AND your community receives safer water. Before your next stop at Kroger for all of your holiday fixings, link your Kroger plus card to Partners for Clean Streams. You can link your Kroger Plus card here. Next time you shop on Amazon for a quick deal for the holidays, link your account with Partners for Cleans Streams and make your gift do double the good. You can link your Amazon account here.
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This was not your average Annual General Meeting. On a chilly November evening, participants gathered together with their favorite drink over a Zoom call to celebrate the success of 2020 and brainstorm ideas for the future of Partners for Clean Streams. Virtual presentations were made, but more excitingly the Clean Streams Partner Award was given and votes were cast for board members.
Clean Streams Partner Award was created by the Partners for Clean Streams Board of Directors in 2007 to honor exceptional individuals and/or organizations in our community that work to improve our rivers and streams. This award is based on environmental stewardship and involvement. There have been many great recipients in the past and we are excited to add Randy Nissen to the list of outstanding clean stream partners. Randy has been involved in Clean Your Streams Day with Toledo Public Schools since 2010. He was a teacher for 35 years, though now retired, he is still is active in his community. Since 2010, he has gotten hundreds of students involved in Clean Your Streams Day. We would also like to thank Randy for a connection to Earnest Brew Works, who supplied gallons of hand sanitizer (which did not smell like Crunchie Hippie at all) to keep everyone at Clean Your Streams Day healthy this year.
Partners for Clean Streams gladly welcomed Marilyn DuFour from the Monroe Street United Methodist Church as a new board member at Partners for Clean Streams. Though she is new to the Board, Marilyn has been a lifelong partner for clean stream. She has been a kick-off coordinator for Clean Your Streams day for 20 years! This year, she helped coordinated a safe distanced in-person kick-off; organizing 17 volunteers to safely clean our streams. Partners for Clean Streams would also like to congratulate Joan King, Denise Fonner, and Bill Buri for continuing their seats on the Board. We are looking forward to working with you!
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As we near the end of the year it has given us the time to reflect on the work we have been able to do and the work we are going to do in the future. The pandemic has shaped our communities and our programs. We did have to turn on our heels quickly to continue working on removing, preventing, and bring awareness of marine debris. Our group sizes reduce dramatically to 10 or less. Masks are required. We invested in more grabbers so our volunteers did not have to touch PPE. Nevertheless, thanks to our volunteers and community partners, we still prevailed in removing thousands of pounds of marine debris from our waterways. Below is a summation of the positive impacts you had this year.
The storm drain marking effort was furthered by a Girl Scout pack in the Beverly community of Toledo. The 16th Get the Lead Program was a success. In total, 17 PCS volunteers and ZooTeens cleaned 131 pounds of trash from the Maumee River. Twenty-seven Clean Your Streams 365 (CYS365) events were held individually or lead by a PCS staff member this year. In total, CYS365 participants cleaned 19.19 miles of local waterways; removing 1,000 pounds of trash! Toledo Metroparks and Northwest Ohio River Runner got out on the water for three events as well and removed 1,150 pounds of trash from two Maumee River Islands and Lower Swan Creek.
Finally, Clean Your Streams 24 was another successful event that had to change rapidly because of the pandemic. We offered a virtual on your own CYS 24 option; which 176 people participated in from September 18th- September 27th. A more traditional CYS 24 was held on September 26th. The safe-distanced in-person event attracted 256 people at 7 different kick-off locations. With over 431 volunteers working in small teams across nearly 80 different locations, together we removed 16,957.11 pounds of trash from our watershed in a week. That is approximately 20,057.3 pounds of trash removed from our waterways by just about 600 volunteers! Thank you to all that showed up to volunteer, donate, or help plan. Your work has been incredible; we are looking forward to next year!
The Annual report for 2019 was postponed due to the pandemic but is available now. Check out last year’s impact here!
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Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial, located in Put-in-Bay, is a celebration of peace between the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States after the War of 1812. Though, most Ohioans know Put-in-Bay for the tourism and recreation aspect. As a popular getaway, it attracts thousands of people aiming to relax and unwind on Lake Erie during the summer months. With many people on a small island, not to mention all the tourists on the mainland enjoying the beach, debris is bound to fly into Lake Erie on a blustery day, fall off a boat, or get dropped by a distracted sight-seer. A new partnership between National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Park Service aims to mitigate the marine debris at Put-in-Bay. This exciting new partnership was supported by the Ohio Sea Grant, Stone Lab, and Plastic Free Put-in-Bay. Read more about this opportunity on the NOAA Marine Debris Blog here and be sure to follow @PlasticFreePIB and @OhioSeaGrant on Twitter and Facebook for updates on this unique program.
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Success and heartbreak have been the themes of 2020 for us. We have had the success of Clean Your Streams Day, Get the Lead Out, Clean Your Streams 365 program, and a fishing line recycling program. We have been fortunate to have an adaptable team, planning teams, board members, and volunteers during 2020. They have been instrumental in our success in 2020 and we have been grateful to be able to provide safe experiences.
Though, at the heart of Partners for Clean Streams, we are a community-based nonprofit. We see and feel all of the agony 2020 has caused in our communities. As a way to come together, while we’re apart this year, we are asking those that can give to help support your streams. We pride ourselves on being a sustainable organization and being resourceful is one of our great qualities, so as little as $10 goes a very long way for us. That money can be used for gloves that will last many Clean Your Streams Programs, $25 will provide grabbers that will be used for years to keep our volunteers safe, $50 will provide supplies for the Storm Drain Marking program. Click here to make an impact that will last years: https://partnersforcleanstreams.org/give
We also have various membership levels available. Members of PCS will receive access to a monthly e-newsletter, one vote on issues at the Annual General Meeting, ownership in protecting streams for generations to come, and furthering programs to benefit our communities. Click here to become a member to protect our streams: https://partnersforcleanstreams.org/membership
If you are planning to donate or becoming a member, we recommended donating on Giving Tuesday, December 1st. On this day only, we will be eligible for a $5,000 charitable grant through Toledo Community Foundation, a local nonprofit resource center.
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The Annual General Meeting is going to be held on Zoom this year. You are encouraged to bring your own beverage and appetizer. There will be breakout sessions for you to talk to each other more easily. All Challenge Awards winners from Clean Your Streams Day, PCS partners, and Board Members are invited for discussion, slideshow presentation, and an Awards Ceremony. We will review the programs from the past year and present a summary of our work throughout 2020. We will recognize a Clean Streams Partner and our Challenge Award winners from Clean Your Streams Day! There will also be a Board Election so if you are interested in serving on the Board, please get in touch with us as soon as possible. We look forward to this annual event to share what we do and to acknowledge the partners that make our work possible. You can RSVP here. We will email the login information to those that RSVP to the Zoom meeting closer to the 17th. We will also have the login information on PCS’s calendar closer to the Annual General Meeting as well.
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We have compiled all the data cards and tabulated exactly how much trash and debris 431 volunteers were removed from the waterways. This year, over 10 days, there were nearly 90 clean-up sites along riverbanks and one canoe crew. These volunteers worked hard to gather 339 bags of trash equaling 16,597 pounds including 116 tires! A total of 33,888 items were picked up. The top ten items found this year were: food wrappers (4,654), plastic pieces (3,575), cigarette butts (2,887), plastic beverage bottles (2,825), grocery bags (2,445), foam pieces (2,398), beverage cans (1,676), other plastic bags (1,306), other plastic/foam packaging (1,075), and glass pieces (979).
The data cards and tallies in the Clean Swell App help us to track trends and changes in what is being found in our community. This information is submitted to the International Coastal Conservancy database and local municipalities. The goal is to be able to affect policy and public change on a local, regional, national, and international scale to help reduce specifically what is being found in our waterways.
Single-use plastics are widely used and inadvertently end up as litter in the streams; as evidenced by all the plastic material removed through Clean Your Streams with 45% of items removed being plastic. All of our volunteers did an amazing job at reducing the amount of trash in nearby streams and rivers and we hope seeing this impact first-hand will reduce the need for Clean Your Streams programs in the future. Clean Your Streams is one way in which we can conserve and protect our water bodies for the future. Thanks again to all of our volunteers, planning committee members, and sponsors for making this weeklong program a success!
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You continue to astound us. The pandemic may have whittled the number of volunteers for this event but the impacts made were still enormous. So far, our Clean Swell tally shows that together we removed 1,693.06 pounds of marine debris from our waterways; but wait, there’s more! We are still processing the written data cards but the complete results are coming soon! We’ll share the complete impact on our social media soon. A deep thank you to every one of the 325 volunteers that showed up on September 26th or participated virtually from September 20th– 26th. You truly made a positive impact on our waterways for our communities and wildlife.
Just a few of the interesting finds included: plastic fingers, a toilet, a cigarette butt disposal stand, grill cover, and a wine bottle with a balloon attached.
If you did not receive a shirt and other appreciation goodies, please email us at [email protected]. Our grant funders and donors made it possible, even this year, to have another great Clean Your Streams program, in a 2020-way. Join us next year for the 25th anniversary of Clean Your Streams Day!
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Reflect on the successes of an unprecedented year and vote for the 2021 Board of Directors. This year, like most events, will be held virtual on Zoom from 6 pm – 8 pm on November 17th. We will have a chance to socialize (you bring your favorite beverage!) in small breakouts, recognize our Partner award winner, and hold elections. Consider making your annual donation or joining as a member this evening too. Check our website, calendar, and social media for more information.
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