Volunteers clean up Ashtabula
Apr. 20—ASHTABULA — A huge turnout for Ashtabula Clean-Up Day helped volunteers clean a wide area of the city, and do so faster than anticipated, said Ashtabula City Council member Jane Haines-DiGiacomo, who organized the event with fellow council member Jodi Mills.
The third year of the event saw an estimated 200 volunteers participate in the clean-up operations. The city provided trash bags, and city workers picked up the trash along the streets where volunteers bagged it.
"It's been good and we got a lot of trash," said Edgewood High School junior Olivia Fenton, who came with fellow student council members.
Maddie Crooks, also a junior at Edgewood, said participating in the project made her more aware of how much trash is left along city streets.
"You don't realize how much is there," she said.
Haines-DiGiacomo said the goal of the event is not to just pick up trash, but make people aware of how much trash is created thoughtlessly.
"I want to create an awareness before people throw trash out the window," she said.
Trisha Kato, a student council advisor at Edgewood, said the school brought about 15 students to assist cleaning the city. She said they got up early and gave of their time to help make the city a cleaner place.
Haines-DiGiacomo said the event actually got started earlier in the week.
"Koski Construction came down on Thursday and cleaned Main Avenue and they took out 3,000 pounds of trash," she said.
Event participants had the opportunity to work under bright sunny skies, but a brisk wind and cold temperatures made the experience a bit chilly.
The volunteers spread out all over the city to 18 designated areas that included Bunker Hill, Cornelius Park to Tannery Hill, Griswold Road, Ann Avenue and Samuel Avenue.
"The city cleaned up 10,080 pounds of total weight [trash], a bit over five tons. ...The clean-up was a huge success," Mills said.
The event took place on the Saturday of Earth Day weekend. Haines-DiGiacomo said the organizers try to have it as close to Earth Day as possible, but also like to pick up the trash before plant growth begins to cover it up.
Earth Day is officially commemorated today, and it is the 54th anniversary of the first event held on April 22, 1970. Earth Day was created to make people aware of the need to protect the environment.
The Earth Day movement has grown over the decades and includes a wide range of events coordinated by Earthday.org, the organization's website states.
An estimated one billion people are expected to participate in events across 193 countries, Earth Day organizers state on the website.
In 1970, Cleveland held a variety of events including "teach-ins" at Cleveland State University and Baldwin-Wallace College, as well as tree plantings and an anti-pollution march.
One of the events that led to Earth Day's creation was the 1969 fire that burned on the Cuyahoga River. Images of the event were used to bolster attempts to increase awareness.
Earth Day also led to the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970 and the Clean Water Act in 1972. It also led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency at the suggestion of President Richard Nixon.
