Río Limpio Cleanup Event – Middle Fork Tule River July 2010

Rio Limpio: The Clean Water Challenge.

Read this article from the Porterville Recorder.

The second river clean-up of the year, titled The Clean Water Challenge: Caring for Community and World took place on July 10th, 2010. WildPlaces and local church groups partnered in a community/global connection in a clean water challenge river clean-up and fundraiser.

Local churches were asked to raise funding for The Water Project: a worldwide Christian-based non-profit organization focusing on well-building, well-rehabilitation and clean water in Haiti and beyond. With the recent catastrophic natural disaster in Haiti and the great need for aid, our focus for the event was the Haiti relief effort and connecting local and global stewardship in the fight for clean water.

In total, around 100 bags of trash were collected from each of the three clean-up sites and churches are continuing to raise funding.

To learn more or to fundraise check out: http://thewaterproject.org/wildplaces/.

Statistics

Springville clean-up

-Approximately 50 bags of trash/recycling collected
-Approximately 70 volunteers: WildPlaces Staff and volunteer leaders, several congregations, including the Lighthouse Chapel (Springville), Port Naz (Porterville), First Southern Baptist Congregation (Porterville), First Congregational Church (Porterville), Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (Porterville), Tule River Parkway Association members, a hand full of Porterville College students, a Porterville College instructor, and several individual community members.

Porterville clean-up

-12 people total
-1 adult and three youth from Port Naz (led by Pastor Chad )
-2 from the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (adopted portion of river several years ago)
-5 Tule River Parkway Association members
-1 random man (talked to along River and came to join in on clean-up)
Trash collected? 50 bags, plus larger items

There were three locations for the July 10th clean-up:

1) Springville – volunteers met at 8:30 at the Springville Veterans Memorial Park.
Garbage pick-up and graffiti removal at 6 swimming hole locations in the National
Forest: Peace Hole, The Stairs, The Confluence, The Falls, The Slides, Wishon 1, and
Wishon 2. BBQ/Educational games and entertainment at 11:30. The after clean-up events
were held at Lighthouse Chapel in Springville.
2) Bartlett Park, Porterville – a group of cub scouts will be camping at Bartlett park and cleaning along the river.
3) Porterville Park and Ride Lot – volunteers cleaned the Tule River Parkway. They met at 8:30 at the Jaye St. Park and Ride lot and finished around 12:00.

Event Announcement

SPECIAL EVENT! The Clean Water Challenge: an overview of our July 10^th river clean-up event: Partnering Community and World…

This is the Clean Water Challenge component of Río Límpío. Faith-based organizations are invited to attend a river clean-up challenge while raising money to be donated to a clean water organization in Haiti. Stay tuned for more…

WildPlaces and local church groups will be partnering in a community/global connection in a clean water challenge. Local churches will be asked to raise funding for our July 10^th clean up event and receive pledges for bags of trash collected. The funds raised will go to The Water Project: a worldwide Christian-based non-profit organization focusing on well-building and clean water in Haiti and beyond.

As always, all individuals and groups are invited to join in on the river cleaning event! We are placing a special focus on church groups and church youth groups to connect clean water locally with the clean water relief efforts in Haiti. If you would like to involve your church/youth group please contact Emily, Emily@wildplaces.net for more information on how to join in!

Fun-filled day down on the Tule River in Springville, CA, demonstrating good river stewardship practices and reaching out to other river-users to also take personal responibility of OUR Tule River. There is a free BBQ at Upper Coffee Camp after the river clean-up, prizes for the most collected trash or most interesting piece of trash. Fun times. Please join us.

Middle Fork Tule River on July 10th from 8.30 a.m. until 2.00 p.m.