Keep Arlington Beautiful, the City of Arlington's Water and Parks and Recreation Departments, and local geocachers and volunteers will join forces to clean up Lake Arlington on April 6, 2013 from 8AM-Noon.
Volunteers at last year's April cleanup removed over 10.8 tons of litter from the lake, and even more volunteers are expected for this year's event. Staff will be shuttling volunteers across the lake by boat from Richard Simpson Park to the cleanup sites, or volunteers can canoe or kayak at their leisure. Starbucks will provide coffee and hot chocolate (or iced tea, depending on the weather) during the event, and Exelon Handley Power Plant will be providing lunch for the volunteers afterwards.
For the first time since the April lake cleanups began in 2006, the event will be a "Cache In Trash Out'event for geocachers; geocachers who participate will receive a "Don't Mess with Texas Trash Off'themed path tag. Groups like the Southwest Arlington Geocachers (SWAG) have participated in several "Cache in Trash Out'events with the City of Arlington over the past two years. "SWAG enjoys volunteering and giving back to the community. The geocaching community looks for events such as this as a way to help improve our public parks and open spaces,'stated Leslie Lovett, Arlington resident and SWAG member.
This will also be the first lake cleanup event in which Arlington will make use of a trailer outfitted with litter cleanup supplies, purchased through a supplemental environmental project. The litter trailer is sponsored as part of a 2012 Arlington Water Utilities Department settlement with the TCEQ where an agreement was reached to form a partnership with Arlington's Parks and Recreation Department and Keep Arlington Beautiful to assist in funding of litter and contaminant elimination programs throughout the community, including programs targeted to prevent sanitary sewer overflows caused by improper fat, oil and grease disposal as well as severe weather, improper system operation and maintenance and vandalism. Arlington will conduct seven cleanups this year as part of this project, and the trailer will also be available for community groups to use and host their own litter cleanup events.
Volunteers should meet at Richard Simpson Park, 6300 W Arkansas Ln, Arlington, TX 76016 for the event. Volunteers are encouraged to wear layered clothing with pants and long sleeves, sun block and insect repellent. Please consider possible poison ivy allergies before volunteering for this event. Cleanup supplies, such as bags, gloves and pickers will be provided. To volunteer for this event, simply show up the morning of the event. No geocaching experience is required. Bring the family and have a great time on the lake while helping to Keep Arlington Beautiful. For questions regarding this event email [email protected]. For more information on future clean up and geocaching events, please visit http://keeparlingtonbeautiful.com.
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