I Love A Clean San Diego 2012 Ramona Cleanup

Ramona Trails Association (RTA) does love a clean San Diego; and to prove it, members Cheryl Wegner and Ingrid Tighe co-chaired the committee for the Ramona location, one of 88 throughout the county, for I Love A Clean San Diego (ILACSD) 10th annual Creek to Bay Cleanup. Over 90 people signed up to help pick up all kinds of trash in the Ramona area on April 28, 2012.

People couldn't have asked for a better day; and the weather was perfect, especially after a week of unpredictable rain showers. It was a little mucky in some places, and there was water in the Santa Maria Creek; but the sun was out with a nice breeze, and the temperature was perfect for a little physical labor.

Most of the volunteers gathered at the RTA staging area, which is part of the Ramona Community Park at 434 Aqua Street, in the big dirt lot across Aqua Street from the Rodeo Ground's Fred Grand Arena. A smaller group of students from Ramona High School's Fusion team met at the Montecito location and started from there.

How great it was to see scout groups, school teams, and families, in addition to the RTA members who were able to attend the cleanup. We had youngsters and oldsters alike working together on a common goal. To see all the kids that took their Saturday morning to willingly participate was awesome. For some, this was their first time to volunteer for a community service. Glad they joined the effort.

ILACSD provided gloves, garbage bags, and water. Cheryl Wegner, the Volunteer Coordinator for San Diego County Parks, donated protein bars and mechanical sticks to pick up the small items of trash without having to bend over as part of the county's Volunteer Program. Cheryl did the orientation, while RTA member Margaret Hill took care of getting everyone checked in and waivers signed. Cheryl assigned work groups to head out to various areas from the Community Park all the way to Montecito.

Participants gathered at the RTA Staging area, ready to work.

The group was asked to return to the staging area to check back in before leaving for the day, and they were given contact numbers in case they had questions or if they found large items that would need to be picked up by one of the two trucks provided by Cheryl Wegner and Christine Griffin. The trucks went from site to site to pick up the trash and take it to Ramona Disposal Service (RDS), who allowed the trash to be dumped at no charge.

Crew working the Santa Maria Creek area at 13th St.

They filled the trailer and truck bed twice!

Christine pulled a trailer behind her truck, which was quickly filled with mattresses, couches, and lawn furniture cleaned from the side of the creek east of 13th Street. Articles of clothing, a TV, a kids' sized swimming pool filled with junk, broken windows, and a room sized piece of carpet were all dragged out from beside the creek. The truck and trailer made two trips to RDS. The load in the picture above weighed in at 1,180 pounds. After the trash was dumped, 5 shopping carts were returned to their stores.

Ramona Disposal Service participation in the event was huge. Not only did they allow us to dump the trash at no cost, they took a 40-yard dumpster to the Montecito location so trash could be put in that and then be picked up later by one of their trucks. Cheryl was able to get a picture of part of the group (some had to leave before she got there), and you can see that the trash reached the top of the dumpster. Phew, what a great job all the kids from Fusion did there. According to Cheryl, in addition to the 40-yard dumpster, Ramona Disposal Service numbers reflected over 1,800 pounds of trash was brought in from the other locations.

The people at Daniel's Market and Stater Brothers were amazed and very grateful for the return of their shopping carts. Daniel's only has 4 carts, so the return of this one that had been missing for a long time brightened the staff's morning. The employees at Stater Brothers were also surprised that people were actually returning carts, so it was a great way to introduce them to both RTA and ILACSD.

We would like to also thank Laurie Broadwater, who provided 3 of her Photo Ribbons to be signed by participants. One will be presented to Ramona Disposal Service with a recognition thank you, one will go back to Laurie for her display of various events, and Cheryl was given one as chairperson for this event.

Biggest thanks go to all those who were able to share the time and camaraderie of making Ramona a little more beautiful and safer, all in a few hours on a fabulous spring morning. What a great way to start a weekend.

Thanks to all who participated!

Christine Griffin, President