[Durham INC] Volunteers Needed for Durham's "Big Sweep" October 1

[Blalock, Amy]

City of Durham

County of Durham

 

Joint News Release

 

For Immediate Release: Sept. 23, 2011

For Details, Contact:

Amy Blalock

Sr. Public Affairs Specialist, City of Durham

(919) 560-4123, ext. 11253

 

Dawn D. Dudley

Public  Information Specialist, County of Durham

(919) 560-0008

 

 

Volunteers Needed for Durham's "Big Sweep" October 1

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 1,
2011, 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, and Keep Durham Beautiful, Inc. (KDB), will
focus on removing litter from Durham's streams, watersheds, streets, and
parks.  

 

According to Jennifer Brooks, soil conservationist and education
coordinator with the Durham County Soil and Water Conservation District,
last year's Big Sweep shattered records and event organizers are hoping
for a repeat this year. "The event was a huge success thanks to the
efforts of hundreds of residents who combed our community to restore
Durham habitats, beautify our landscape, and protect our waterways,"
said Brooks. "Litter creates seriously negative health effects for
people, the environment, and the well-being of wildlife. It washes from
streets to storm drains to creeks. It entangles animals and can be toxic
when ingested. Cigarette butts are extremely toxic to small water
organisms or when birds use them to build nests. The list just goes on
and on. But, thanks to the efforts of our 619 volunteers last year,
Durham is now cleaner for us all, and we believe we can do it again this
year."

 

Brooks and other organizers hope the 12,920 pounds of litter and debris
collected in 2010 can be matched or surpassed this year. If volunteers
cannot participate on October 1, they are encouraged to pick another day
in October to participate.

 

Durham residents, organizations or groups interested in volunteering for
this year's event should contact Brooks 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
1 should contact Jennifer Brooks at (919) 560-0558 (work), (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/20110923/07c6c31c/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image005.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 2932 bytes
Desc: image005.jpg
URL: <http://rtpnet.org/pipermail/inc-list/attachments/20110923/07c6c31c/attachment.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image006.png
Type: image/png
Size: 6365 bytes
Desc: image006.png
URL: <http://rtpnet.org/pipermail/inc-list/attachments/20110923/07c6c31c/attachment.png>