11/30/19 3rd annual green friday (rescheduled for saturday)
lower salt river cleanup at Sheep Crossing
We hosted our 3rd annual Green Friday Lower Salt River Cleanup on Saturday, November 30th, 2019. Mother Nature had different plans for us on Friday the 29th with heavy rains, a tornado touching down in Scottsdale, and poor visibility on the roads so we rescheduled for the next day.
We teamed up with our friends at REI for a morning of stewardship and fun. For the 3rd year in a row, we encouraged the community to think differently about the day after Thanksgiving and start a new tradition with us. Thank you to 145 volunteers, including 26 youth volunteers, for Opting Outside with us and leaving a positive impact on the Lower Salt River at Sheep Crossing. Together, we removed 3.24 tons of trash, that’s 6,480 pounds of trash no longer littering the river. Thank you to all of the volunteers who helped us make a significant impact!
Sheep Crossing is a closed recreation area along the Lower Salt River. In September of 2019, the Steward Mountain Dam released water at 40,000 cubic feet per second into the Lower Salt River. The water rose to 18 feet in some places, flushing out all of the long buried trash from the river bed and weaving it into the trees.
This project was financed in part by a grant from REI. We would like to thank the following organizations for their support of this event: American Rivers, American Way Market, CopperPoint Insurance Companies, Desert Monsters Tours, Garland Signs & Specialties, J. Bowers & Associates, Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, LeBaron & Carroll Insurance, Manatee Bags, OdySea Aquarium Foundation, Parks Project, Plogging Arizona, Salt River Project, Sierra Expeditions, Southwest Airlines, Tru Flask, the U.S. Forest Service - Tonto National Forest - Mesa Ranger District, and Yamaha Outdoor Access Initiative.
Check out all of the photo galleries below. Pictures from the raffle are also below.
Before Photos - click a photo to bring up full size gallery
click a photo to view full size image
Additional Photos shared with permission from volunteers
We would like to thank everyone at LeBaron & Carroll Insurance in Mesa for donating 130 new trash grabbers to our program. This donation will have a huge impact on our volunteer events going forward.
THANK YOU everyone FROM AMERICAN WAY MARKET IN CHANDLER FOR donating & catering A DELICIOUS BBQ LUNCH FOR VOLUNTEERS TO ENJOY AFTER A MORNING OF HARD WORK
Thank you to everyone at Southwest Airlines in Phoenix for donating snacks to our volunteers!
Raffle Winners! Huge thanks to Tru Flask, Manatee Bags, and Parks Project for providing us with awesome prizes for volunteers. We know volunteers don’t attend our events for prizes, it’s just a nice way to help show them how much local organizations and the community appreciates their hard work.
