3-day cleanup event galvanizes 275 Colorado College students, thousands of volunteers
EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- Organizations and students are partnering together for a 3-day clean-up event. The Colorado Springs Stormwater Enterprise is collaborating with Colorado College and the City of Manitou Springs for the clean-up starting Wednesday, August 25th through Friday, August 27th.
It is the city's largest "Adopt-a-Waterway" program since 2019. More than 275 incoming Colorado College first-year students will help clean up seven miles of Fountain Creek between Sierra Madre Street in Colorado Springs to Rainbow Falls in Manitou Springs.
According to the City of Colorado Springs, "The event reinforces Colorado College’s connection with the neighboring Monument Creek as first-year students engage in a community-focused project as part of the college’s Priddy Experience program."
The City’s Adopt-A-Waterway Program promotes volunteerism of local businesses and organizations to maintain healthy waterways in Colorado Springs through regular waterway cleanups. The program has grown from 25 groups in 2016 to 87 in 2021. These groups, which have been inactive during the COVID-19 pandemic, conduct routine cleanups that help reduce the impacts of trash and debris which harms water quality and impacts the beauty of the City’s watersheds.
In 2019, Adopt-A-Waterway Program had an estimated:
- Number of Events: 102
- Number of Volunteers: 3,321
- Value of Volunteer Hours: $171,430
- Pounds/Tons of Litter Removed: 70,600 pounds/35.3 tons
- Volunteer Dollar Value: $149,868
- Pounds/tons removed: 65,730/ 32.87 tons
