Volunteers for a Cleaner Chatsworth

FUN CLEAN UP ON THE RESEDA BLVD ON AND OFF RAMP - 118 FREEWAY TODAY! SATURDAY, APRIL 9 GROUP EVENT - RESEDA BLVD ON / OFF RAMP 118 FREEWAY & STREETS I was surveying this area and saw that a whole ream of 8 1/2 x 11 paper must have escaped from some window of a car - and it was horrible... paper everywhere on this eastbound exit... so we had our work cut out for us today.... Jim, Emilie, Gordon, Joan, Meghan, Steve, Caroline and myself were raring to go! We split up - Jim, Joan and myself taking the off ramp south side of Reseda Blvd - the others taking the on ramp south side. We picked up 6+ bags - then we moved to help the other team and picked up 15+ bags on that side (it was really bad!) - 21+ bags in total! That is a record day! What a great clean up event and thank you to all that participated. Had lunch with part of the group to talk about future plans and events. Such a nice group of people! Next clean up is this WEDNESDAY: DeSoto and Roscoe - meet at the Carl's Jr. parking lot at 9am.. please let me know if you are attending.

"BASH SOME TRASH" CHALLENGE WEEKEND. For those that want to see our community streets and sidewalks free of litter, please take the "Bash some Trash" challenge. Take a short walk somewhere, take a bag, and pick up a bag of trash from the sidewalks and streets.... THEN CHALLENGE 2 OF YOUR FRIENDS TO DO THE SAME. Send me a picture of you and your trash bag (tell me your name and city you collected the trash in) and I will post on future collages of our accomplishments. If you find something interesting - let us know - someone's trashes someone's treasure! This will be the 3rd week of the Challenge - we had over 125 people collect trash last week! That is at allot of trash removed from our community streets! Thank you for participating... here is a collage of some of the participants from last week.

CIGARETTE BUTTS ARE TAKING OVER THE GUTTERS! REMEMBER TO "BASH SOME TRASH" EVERY WEEKEND We have a weekly challenge to take a walk and collect one bag of trash. Take a picture of yourself with the trash and send to me along with the location of the clean up. We are keeping a tally of the collections by person for a future reward challenge......Continue reading

REMEMBER TO "BASH SOME TRASH" EVERY WEEKEND We have a weekly challenge to tak a walk and collect one bag of trash. Take a picture of yourself with the trash and send to me along with the location of the clean up. We are keeping a tally of the collections by person for a future reward challenge... meanwhile our community is becoming cleaner with the help of everyone individually! We have an ETSY STORE selling my original colored pencil artwork - proceeds funding Volunteers ...Continue reading

CALL TO ACTION FOR EVERYONE WHO DISLIKES LITTER! BASH SOME TRASH WEEKEND #2 So last weekend we had over 100 people Bash some Trash and send me pictures too many for me to post at once so I will do it in batches. But that means that we have 100+ more bags of litter off of our streets! Some of you mentioned that you met new neighbors and motivated others to do the same litter removal. ... Thank you to all of you who participated in the challenge. Let’s do it again and again are you in? This weekend - March 17-18 - we challenge EVERYONE AGAIN to take a walk, take a bag, take some trash off the streets! The bag should be one of your trash bags you use every day and/or a grocery bag like you get from your local market. Fill it with all the litter you find (including cigarette butts) in your selected area. Grab your friends, your family members, your dog, your neighbors, or just go out alone on your walk and have some fun let me know if you find something highly unique on your walk (or even money). This is a great activity to do with your kids! After you collect your bag of litter TAKE A PICTURE SEND it to me at [email protected] or text to 818-519-7567 with THE YOUR NAME and THE CITY you collected it from. We want this to be a every weekend day event for us BASH SOME TRASH and will be tracking your litter removal progress toward a fun contest, rewards, community recognition for your amazing efforts. Let’s all go out and BASH SOME TRASH to make cleaner communities. PLEASE SHARE THIS EVENT WITH AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN website: https://volunteerscleaningcommunities.com facebook: Volunteers for a Cleaner Chatsworth Here are some pictures of the last challenge - some "Bash some Trashers" and their bag!

CLEANING TODAY - DESOTO & WALGREEN'S Today we decided to tackle the area around DeSoto and Devonshire. Though we have cleaned some of the areas around here about a month or so ago, there is another accumulation of litter. We met at Walgreen's at the corner of DeSoto and Devonshire to organize the routes we would cover - then off we thought we would go with our bags and carts to clean up. BUT...... THE CLEANING DAY: The parking lot of Walgreen's needed cleaning badly - we we started there...and filled 2 HUGE bags of litter befreo starting on on the corner of Devonshire and DeSoto. We worked up DeSoto to the school crossing and back on the other side - picking up 2 large bags on the one side and 2 more large bags on the other side fo the street. This area is a little challenging to work because there is no parking lane - traffic drives FAST right next to the curb. Cleaning the gutters was accomplished between lights...and that is where most of the trash lays. I think the freeway is much safer that this street for cleaning! We found a "raod kill" possum as well. It was a great clean up day. Please share this newletter with others who you feel would like to join our events in getting our streets and highways free from litter! WHAT A DIFFERENCE! It doesn't take much to give our community a clean, beautiful visual - just a passion for getting rid of litter and the willingness to pitch in some time and effort. I thank all the volunteers who help make our environment / community a better place to live in. LITTER COLLECTION COUNTS FOR JANUARY 2021: INDIVIDUAL Walk Collections: 12 Bags GROUP Collections: 31 Bags If you are unable to help us with collection events, then help us through donations to our gofundme that provides supplies, supports the reward program, etc. We appriciate your donation. GOFUNDME: https://gofund.me/5d724d8a

CLEANING AN ABANDONED HOMELESS CAMP (ACTUALLY 2) - BALBOA BLVD FREEWAY EXIT Today was an amazing accomplishment! Emilie Koster and I decided to tackle the area going east up the Balboa Blvd off ramp form the 118 Freeway... OMG... what allot of litter!... We created a video for you to see the before and after - got 25 (plus on that was too heavy to put in the pile) Bags of litter / trash, a lounge chair, 5 suitcases, plastic storage containers, a stroller, umbrellas - you name it and it was there. https://www.youtube.com/cha/UC9taNYFGYZdtOdyIlvgd1Hw/videos In just under 4 hours, the 2 of us were able to make that area BEAUTIFUL - even neighbors were stopping to tell us that it was so CLEAN and that they appreciated it. And of course, they thought we were from the city or doing community service... Emily is a work horse and even though we were tired and our backs were hurting, we carried on to get the job done! Thank you Emily!

SHERMAN WAY CLEAN UP - DECEMBER 30 Today we joined with another group itisoverdue.com - Max is the organizer of the group - to clean up Sherman Way from the Orange Line on Canoga to Variel. We had hoped to go to DeSoto, but there was so much litter that we did not make it there in the time allotted. We got 7+ bags! Max is going to complete the street with his group on this Saturday Clean up event... thank you!... There were 3 of us from Max's group including him and Judith, Jerry and myself from our group. It was a gorgeous day - perfect weather and good exercise. We stopped for Starbucks afterwards to celebrate that "we made a difference" today!

LAST STREET CLEAN UP EVENT FOR THE YEAR 2020 Our last street cleaning will be this Wednesday, December 30th - we will be doing SHERMAN WAY, which is new for us and really needs it. WE WILL MEET AT: BUS STATION PARKING LOT ON SOUTH SIDE OF CANOGA AVENUE & SHERMAN WAY... TIME: 9am It is supposed to be a nice day - and so it will be pleasant and fun. If you have time afterwards, we will travel to STARBUCK’S nearby on Topanga and Sherman Way for a DELICIOUS HOT CHOCOLATE or COFFEE if you have to time - to TOAST IN THE NEW YEARS! PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU CAN MAKE THIS I know we have a few new ones who are joining us.

CHRISTMAS DAY CLEAN UP - A PRESENT TO THE COMMUNITY. On Christmas day I decided to work the Lassen area from Canoga to DeSoto on both sides of the street - a continuation of the day before. The north side was really dirty - and found an abandoned homeless spot against a wall of one of the apartment buildings behind some bushes - was able to get that all cleaned up. The south side had another homeless camp, that I think is abandoned, but could not be sure - so cleaned up the t...rash as much as I could without disturbing possessions - it is hidden behind and under a tree along a fence in front of one of the companies on Lassen. I think that some people thought I was being punished and doing community service because a couple of guys in a car stopped and asked if they could bring me a sandwich and water. Really nice of them, but I refused and wished them a Merry Christmas. It still amazes me that I am picking up trash in front of apartment buildings and the tenants are outside smoking or talking on their phones, and they do not acknowledge me doing this or even assist just a little. This is the culture / attitude that I hope to change with this project - that just picking up litter around you when you see it will make this community / earth a better and cleaner place to live. Merry Christmas to you all. LikeLike