Resiliency wins again with Earth Day in October

Not even a global pandemic could stop Anacostia Watershed Society Earth Day volunteers from celebrating Earth Day in October!

Despite a six month delay, our Earth Day Cleanup in October brought out hundreds of eager volunteers to do their part for a cleaner Anacostia River. The Anacostia Watershed Society was excited to celebrate 50 years of Earth Day in 2020, and our hearts broke at the idea of cancelling the area’s premier cleanup in April. By moving the event to the fall, we were still able to get out in our neighborhood parks and streams while keeping COVID safety measures in place!

The weather was perfect to beautify our watershed on Saturday, October 3, with the sun out and the sky clear. We had 512 volunteers spread out at 23 different sites throughout the watershed who cleaned up a whopping 17.5 tons of trash, recycling, and debris and kept it out of the Anacostia River!

This year we welcomed a new site at Fairmount Heights, where the town government gave their full support to the community members and the Fall 2020 Watershed Stewards who participated there. AWS has long-wanted to host a site in that part of Prince George’s County and the watershed, and it was a treat to bring them into the Earth Day family. Among our other programs, Saturday Environmental Academy students pitched in at River Terrace not far from one of our Trash Traps along the Anacostia River.

None of this would happen without the tireless effort of our Earth Day site leaders! From first-timers to our experienced site leaders (some with more than 20 years working with us!), this group of super volunteers attended trainings, performed site visits, and ran the day for so many in our community. We are so grateful for their commitment to a cleaner Anacostia River. We’d like to give a huge thank you to Pepco, our Gold Sponsor! Also, Earth Day would not be possible without the support of our local municiple governments and agencies including the National Park Service, Mayor’s Office of the Clean City, DC Department of Energy and Environment, DC Department of Public Works, Prince George’s Department of the Environment, and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.

See the pictures from the day in the gallery below!