Cobalt Institute of Math & Science/Silverado High School/Vivant Solar – (Gloria Garcia center)Community support and enthusiasm, combined with Mother Nature providing a gorgeous day, made for a hugely successful Victorville Community Cleanup Day on Saturday, October 26th.
More than 700 volunteers took to the streets of Victorville to pick up litter and other items dumped in the desert.
The volunteers collected 8.72 tons of litter and other trash during the event. The litter and trash filled six large, construction sized “roll-off” trash containers. This is equivalent to filling about 2 ½ “semi” tractor-trailers!
Volunteers represented area schools, churches, club and service organizations, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts,
homeowner associations, businesses, non-profits, families, friends, neighbors, and individuals. Volunteers were organized into 26 teams.
City Councilwoman Gloria Garcia visited a number of the sites to talk with the teams and personally thank them for their service.
“This event illustrates the fantastic community spirit that exists in Victorville. It is wonderful to see so many people and so many organizations getting involved in this positive community project,” said Councilwoman Garcia.
“We had volunteers ranging in age from 3 to 94 years old,” said John Garcia, Victorville Code Enforcement Officer and event coordinator. “Some parents even came out and picked up litter while pushing strollers.”
Team leaders reported that the most common items picked up were plastic bags, paper, fast food wrappers, and to-go beverage cups. Larger items, needlessly dumped in the desert, included furniture, tires, car parts, and mattresses. Perhaps the most unusual item was a one trillion dollar ($1,000,000,000) bill!
The Victorville Community Cleanup Day is a semi-annual event, held each October and April. The first Victorville Cleanup Day was held in October 2007. Since then, more than 6,500 volunteers have worked together to collect over 68 tons of litter from Victorville roadsides.
