The Great American Clean Up is a National Event (www.kab.org) that takes place from March 1st through May 31st. This is a fabulous opportunity to clean up parks, rebuild play spaces, and get the community involved. Each year we work a deal with Waste Management to drop four dumpsters in the City of Canton at strategic locations. We run a Kick Off Event on the first Saturday in May. We invite volunteers through e-mail blasts, the city web site, notices distributed in the local elementary schools, posters, banners and plenty of word of mouth. This year we have Publix and Home Depot sponsoring a "Thank You Cookout" for our volunteers.
The Kick Off Event includes registration at the four dumpster locations. Volunteers receive their assignments which include park clean ups, those volunteers with pick up trucks go around helping people who cannot transport bulk items, and other groups rally residents to come out and clean up. We also have an arrangement with a local towing company to collect junk vehicles. After the Kick Off, the dumpsters are left in the locations throughout the month of May. We notify WM when pickups are necessary and they replace the full dumpsters with empty ones.
In 2007, we had 43 volunteers and total of 156 community service hours. We collected over 55 tons of trash which WM graciously broke down into categories for help in the tallies. We then created thank you/participation letters for each volunteer with a listing of their total hours and presented each volunteer with a Certificate of Appreciation. This year we hope to increase our totals by at least 50 percent.