[Durham INC] Volunteers Needed for Durham's "Big Sweep" Oct. 2

[Blalock, Amy]

City of Durham

County of Durham

 

Joint News Release

 

For Immediate Release: 

September 22, 2010

 

For Details, Contact:

 

Amy Blalock

Sr. Public Affairs Specialist, City of Durham

(919) 560-4123, ext. 1153

 

Dawn D. Dudley

Public  Information Specialist, County of Durham

(919) 560-0008

 

 

Volunteers Needed for Durham's "Big Sweep" October 2

Annual Event Removes Litter from Durham's Streets, Streams, Lakes, and
Parks; Month-Long Clean Ups Encouraged

 

DURHAM, N.C. - Residents ready to help clean up Durham should dig out
their work gloves and boots and mark their calendars now for the annual
North Carolina "Big Sweep," coming to Durham on Saturday, October 2,
2010, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.  

 

This year's event, coordinated by the City of Durham's Stormwater
Services Division with the Public Works Department, the Durham Soil &
Water Conservation District, along with Keep Durham Beautiful, Inc.
(KDB), will focus on removing litter from Durham's streams, watersheds,
streets, and parks.  

 

According to Dorothea Pierce, executive director for KDB, last year 387
volunteers picked up 6,415 pounds of garbage - an amount Durham's event
organizers hope is surpassed with this year's event. "We really want our
residents to volunteer again and help us make a difference in Durham's
appearance, and ultimately, our environment. Garbage and litter from our
roadways is eventually funneled into our streams and lakes, which are
our sources of drinking water. Anything that is thrown in our streets
and parks ends up in our storm drains and streams, and eventually the
ocean, where it harms aquatic life," Pierce said. "This event makes a
huge dent in this recurring problem and Durham residents do make a real
difference - evidenced by how our community cleaned along 17 stream
miles last year. If volunteers can't participate on October 2, then we
are encouraging folks to pick another day in October to participate."

 

Durham residents, organizations or groups interested in volunteering for
this year's event should contact Jennifer Brooks, watershed
conservationist with the Durham Soil & Water Conservation District, at
(919) 560-0558 or via e-mail at jbrooks at durhamcountync.gov. Volunteers
can also register on KDB's website at www.KeepDurhamBeautiful.org. 

 

North Carolina Big Sweep was founded as Beach Sweep in 1987. In 1989, a
public-private partnership officially became Big Sweep, the nation's
first statewide waterway clean-up. Since its founding, North Carolina
Big Sweep has had more than 200,000 volunteers and collected millions of
pounds of trash from North Carolina watersheds. To learn more about this
organization or this year's upcoming event, visit www.NCBigSweep.org.

 

###

 

Local media interested in covering any of the clean up events on October
2 should contact Jennifer Brooks, watershed conservationist with the
Durham Soil & Water Conservation District, at (919) 560-0558, (919)
730-4703 (cell) or jbrooks at durhamcountync.gov for location and meeting
time information.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://rtpnet.org/pipermail/inc-list/attachments/20100922/30c02397/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 2932 bytes
Desc: image002.jpg
URL: <http://rtpnet.org/pipermail/inc-list/attachments/20100922/30c02397/attachment.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image004.png
Type: image/png
Size: 6365 bytes
Desc: image004.png
URL: <http://rtpnet.org/pipermail/inc-list/attachments/20100922/30c02397/attachment.png>