Wooster's Community Clean Up contest April 17-23

Wooster's Community Clean Up contest April 17-23
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Flex Yoga instructor Karen Hartzler, center, her husband, Chad, and their children, Chloe, Drew and Owen, display their trash pickup for last year’s Community Clean Up contest.

                        

A group of four local organizations and businesses will hold the fifth annual Community Clean Up competition to mark Earth Day during the week of April 17-23.

Flex Yoga, Vertical Runner, Junior Women’s Service Club of Wayne County, and Local Roots Market and Cafe are sponsoring the contest, which will involve participants picking up trash throughout Wooster and depositing it in specially marked dumpsters at Ride On Wooster Bicycles on 146 W. South St. in Wooster.

On April 23, the winner will be announced in a community party to be held in the parking lot at Local Roots Market and Cafe at 140 S. Walnut St. from 5-7 p.m. Donatos Pizza will be there to provide refreshments, and Earth Day T-shirts by Expert T’s will be available upon order, with part of the proceeds going to the Wayne Center for the Arts to help in its effort to go greener.

“We encourage people to grab a DORA drink and stop by Local Roots to celebrate,” said Dee Black, manager and instructor at Flex Yoga. “We just want to have a friendly contest that will provide a fun way to remind people that we can all do our part in keeping our community clean.”

Black said the dumpsters will have logos of different local businesses and organizations assigned at random, and participants can pick the dumpster of their choice in which to deposit their trash bags. The winner will be the dumpster that is filled to the highest level.

Besides the four main sponsors, others participating include Boo Bears Brew at Local Roots, Laurie Judson of Keller Williams Legacy Group Realty, United Way of Wayne and Holmes County, and OneEighty.

The City of Wooster is helping to supply trash grabbers, bags and gloves. Black said anyone needing these items should contact any of the event sponsors. The city also is supplying the dumpsters.

“The contest is just for bragging rights until the next year,” Black said. “The ultimate prize we always say is that the Earth wins.”

This marks the fifth year for the event, which was started in 2017 by Flex Yoga owner Emily Mariola and Brian Polen of Vertical Runner.

“Emily’s family always participates, and Brian and a group of his runners do too,” Black said. “Emily’s family picked up 100 bags of trash in one year. It started with them just putting a challenge out to everyone to pick up trash and take photos, and it was a friendly contest between them. It has been evolving ever since then. This year Junior Women’s Service Club and Local Roots have joined us to help grow the event.”

Families are encouraged to participate to provide their children with a way to learn about helping the planet, she said.

“In the past we’ve had anywhere from tiny toddlers to teenagers helping their families,” Black said. “It’s just great to get outside this time of year and help the Earth.”

Black said if someone can’t make it down to the dumpsters, they can just take pictures with their trash bags and post them on social media. The Facebook link for the event is https://fb.me/e/12SQDqynf, and the event will be live-streamed on that page. Sponsors will post updates on their social media throughout the week of the contest as well.

According to Black, trash is well picked up in the city for the most part, but she said on the sides of rural roads throughout the county are good places to look.

“Unfortunately, there are places to find trash,” she said. “And we just want to do our part to clean it up and have some fun while doing it.”


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