Pacific community to celebrate ‘Earth Day is 40’ with cleanup effort

Pacific residents and community service groups volunteers will celebrate the 40th Earth Day with its third annual Pacific Parks Pickup, Trash Toss and Weed Wack on Saturday.

April 14, 2010 1:55 pm
In 2009
In 2009

Pacific residents and community service groups volunteers will celebrate the 40th Earth Day with its third annual Pacific Parks Pickup, Trash Toss and Weed Wack on Saturday.

Activities, which will run from 10 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., will include trash pickup in city Parks and along the Regional Interurban Trail. Volunteers will meet at 10 a.m. at the Pacific-Algona Community/Senior Center, 100 3rd Ave SE, Pacific, then head out to City Park, many City “pocket parks,” West Hill Passive Park, the Interurban Trail and to Rhubarb Park for the Pacific Meadows Wetlands Restoration event.

Trash weigh-in starts about 11 a.m. under the green canopy at the Community/Senior Center parking lot. Joe LaBelle will tally trash on a digital scale until 12:20 p.m.

The Pacific Park Board and Pacific Partnerships will host a free lunch to volunteers at 12:30 p.m.

In addition, there will be an Earth Day in Pacific Photography Contest. The first nine teams to sign p will be provided recyclable film cameras. Entries will be posted in the Pacific City Hall during April for a community vote on categories like best essay and best photo.

The Weed Wack at the Pacific Meadows Wetland Buffer Restoration site is partially funded by a $1,200 grant from the Puyallup River Watershed Council to the City of Pacific. Activities include removing invasive, non-native Himalayan blackberries, enjoying snacks and hot chocolate and taking pictures for the photo contest. For more details, visit www.cityofpacific.com or www.flwr.wetpaint.com.

Volunteers hope to break last year’s record of 1,845 pounds of trash collected from city parks.

This year volunteer service teams are expected from Pacific Partnerships, Friends of the Lower White River, White River Valley Lions Club, Pacific Meadows Homeowners Association, several Scout Troops and from local high schools (students seeking community service project hours are encouraged to sign up).

Volunteers may sign up as individuals or as teams online at www.doodle.com/kb793bzt8scs8q26.

Watch for Earth Day updates at the Pacific Post Office, City Hall and Algona-Pacific Library, on Twitter at http://twitter.com/FLWReditor, at www.cityofpacific.com and http://flwr.wetpaint.com, or send an e-mail to FLWR at pacificnaturalist@clearwire.net, or to jeannefancher@gmail.com to request updates.

Pacific Partnerships and Friends of the Lower White River are coordinating events.