Annual community cleanup sweeps into town April 20

The time is coming once again for residents to help clean up the town, with Wrangell’s annual community cleanup scheduled for Saturday, April 20.

The spring cleanup includes volunteers picking up as much trash around town as possible. The event will start at the Evergreen Elementary gym at 8 a.m. and continue until noon, when there will be a free lunch. Free trash bags and disposable gloves will be provided and there will be drawings and cash prizes for volunteers.

After the bags and gloves are handed out, volunteers can head out and clean up along streets, roads and parks, anywhere in town. Organizers ask that everyone return their trash bags to the collection site at the school, where dumpsters and borough crews will be waiting to haul them away.

Longtime organizer Paula Rak asks that participants not fill up bags with garbage from their own yards or garages.

“I think it’s an amazing thing,” Rak said. “I think that if people are conscious of the litter, then they won’t contribute to the problem.”

“The community cleanup strengthens community bonds, promotes a litter-free environment and instills a sense of pride in the appearance of the community,” IGAP technician Kim Wickman said via email.

Wickman annually coordinates the cleanup with Rak. The Wrangell Cooperative Association has been assisting with the event through its Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (IGAP) since 2017, but the event itself has been going on for decades.

“I moved here in November of 1980 and the Lions Club was already doing it,” Rak said. “They did the event for a couple of years. First prize was pizza, second prize was burgers and third prize was fries.”

She added that during that first year she participated in the cleanup, the weather was good and 30 volunteers showed up. However, it rained the following year, and only six arrived to help.

When Rak and others took charge of the event in the mid-1980s, they decided to provide more substantial cash prizes. Every trash bag turned in earns a ticket, and every ticket drawn will earn $5 for the winner. Rak held a bake sale on Friday morning, March 29, at City Market to raise money for the cash prizes. “Some people will just drop off money, and that works too.”

Rak said there has been some criticism of providing cash incentives to cleanup participants and that people should do it out of civic duty. However, she felt that it motivated people, especially kids, to get involved and help make Wrangell cleaner.

“Last year was a great success, and the weather played a crucial role. It was a clear and beautiful day,” Wickman said. “With the help of about 75 volunteers, we filled approximately six dumpsters and had three to four pickup trucks filled with large garbage items such as tires, a mini-fridge and a mattress delivered directly to the transfer station.”

For more information on the cleanup, call Wickman at 907-874-4304 or Rak at 907-874-3824.