Saturday morning marked the 15th annual Cleanup Columbia, an event in which an estimated 1,509 volunteers worked together around the city to pick up trash.
“We had just incredible participation,” Neighborhood Services Manager Leigh Britt said. “People were eager and very excited about picking up trash. They accomplished quite a bit.”
Volunteers ranged from Cub Scouts to the Sierra Club, with a few MU student organizations in between. The event had at least 36 more volunteers this year compared to last and collected at least 415 more bags of trash.
“It really gives back to the community and it’s not just going to only affect Mizzou,” Phi Gamma Delta sophomore Gideon Berdahl said. “It’s for the whole town. If you live in a nicer town, people are going to be happier. They’re going to try to work together to keep it that way.”
The cleanup happened all around Columbia.
“We had a section of east campus and I really think we cleaned it up pretty well,” senior Kristi Eftink, who is a member of the Pre-Dental Club, said. “It made it look a lot better once all the bottles and the trash were picked up off the streets and in the yards. It makes Columbia a prettier place.”
Throughout the day, volunteers collected an estimated 1,820 trash bags.
“I think the event as a whole kind of raises awareness about cleaning up litter and recycling and not littering, so that hopefully more people will do it on a daily basis,” Beta Beta Beta member Amanda Prasuhn said.
The city provided the volunteers with trash bags, gloves and safety vests, if necessary. The city also assigned the groups to their locations.
“Anyone can participate and have an opportunity to clean up, so it unites the community with the goal of making Columbia cleaner,” Prasuhn said.
The volunteers picked up litter in public places, such as streets, parks, streams and trails and also removed graffiti.
“It’s an easy way for people to volunteer,” Britt said. “It’s a great way that people can spend a few hours and really be part of something that’s much larger than themselves and make an important contribution to the community.”
The city also has a program called Adopt-A-Spot, in which groups can commit to keeping an area clean all year.
“If groups want to clean up more often, we’re quite happy to try to give them ideas and resources to be able to cleanup, and then, we’ll also provide the supplies so they can do it other times of the year,” Britt said. “I think we can feel very good and the citizens who participated should feel very good about it too.”