Spring started a month ago, but better to wait until any remaining snow is gone and the temperatures are a little warmer before embarking on Wrangell’s annual community cleanup.
The cleanup event is set for 8:30 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 19, with crews collecting their gear and heading out from the Evergreen Elementary School parking lot.
“People come in and get bags to collect trash at the place of their choice,” said one of the volunteer organizers, Paula Rak, who has been helping with the community cleanup the past 40 years.
The organizers do not assign areas; volunteers can select wherever they want to stoop, pick up and bag.
Filled bags of trash should be brought back to the school lot, where the borough will have a truck standing by to haul away the trash.
WCA is helping to organize the cleanup. SEARHC is providing disposable gloves, which will be handed out at the school. City Market and Wrangell IGA donated food for morning startup snacks and a noon lunch, Rak said.
And Rak and other organizers raised $300 at a bake sale to provide prize money for collectors.
Volunteers will receive a raffle ticket for every bag they bring to the school lot for a cash drawing during lunch. People who hold the winning numbers will receive $5 each, until the $300 is gone.
In addition to common trash dumped along roads or blown into parks and right of way, past collection drives have found old tires, mattresses and “stuff people shouldn’t be throwing off the side of the road,” Rak said.
“We’d like everyone to do it to help the community,” she said of the annual cleanup.
A lot of people turn out as part of a group, she said, including churches or community organizations such as the Girl Scouts.
Past cleanups have hauled in up to 150 bags a year, filling several dumpsters.
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