THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 23, 1997 TAG: 9701210105
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: THUMBS UP
SOURCE: BY KATHRYN DARLING, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 70 lines
LAST SPRING, The Norfolk Environmental Commission's creative efforts organized 11,000 volunteers and collected 35 tons of litter and recyclables.
Last month, its efforts earned an national Honorable Mention Award for excellence in organizing the Glad Bag-A-Thon's annual cleanup competition in Norfolk.
The presentation of the award, which was given to only five of the 100 cities participating in the cleanup, was made at the Keep America Beautiful conference in Washington, D.C. First place went to Cleveland/Bradley Keep America Beautiful Systems Inc., Cleveland, Tenn.
The bag-a-thon runs for six weeks in the spring, and in Norfolk, groups and organizations volunteer to clean up a street, a public park, the beach, a water way, a parking lot or a school campus.
But Norfolk set itself apart from the rest last year with a new event: a moving relay race and litter pickup held on the local Earth Day weekend.
In the ``Trash Trek'' event, volunteer groups were assigned half-mile areas along a 20-mile stretch.
As a team at either end began to pick up litter, one of its members carried a torch made out of recycled materials.
Moving forward as they cleaned, the team collected litter and passed the torch to the next team, who then began to clean up.
City waste-disposal trucks traveled the route, picking up the bagged litter.
The two final teams, carrying the torches, met up with other teams at the Virginia Zoo in Lafayette Park on Granby Street for a thank-you party for all bag-a-thon volunteers.
During the bag-a-thon competition, Executive Director John Deuel and volunteers at the Norfolk Environment Commission also organized a litter pickup event at Harbor Park during the six-week competition. Every inning, Little Leaguers passed trash bags through the stands to collect litter.
People throw trash on the floor at baseball games and at the theater, Deuel said. ``They assume someone else will handle it.''
People need to break the habit, and events like trash night at Harbor Park help educate them, Deuel said.
This spring, the Norfolk Environmental Commission will have a new format to help educate the public about the environment. The concession stand adjacent to the zoo is being renovated into the Ernie Morgan Environmental Action Center.
The center is named after Ernie Morgan. Before his death three years ago, Morgan, a Norfolk resident, was very involved in environmental issues and worked to get people involved in cleaning up their own neighborhoods.
The center will not only be a learning center, it will be a meeting spot and staging location for the volunteer groups, said Deuel, a resident of Virginia Beach.
Renovations have begun on the building and donations and volunteers are still needed to get the center ready for its debut at the Norfolk and Virginia Beach Earth Day celebration May 4, Deuel said. MEMO: If you know someone you think is deserving of a Thumbs Up!
feature, call Kathryn Darling at 446-2286. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MOTOYA NAKAMURA
John Deuel, executive director of the Norfolk Environmental
Commission, visits the site of the future action center in Lafayette
Park.
WANT TO HELP?
This spring, the Norfolk Environmental Commission will again
participate in the Glad Bag-A-Thon, a national litter cleanup
contest. Individuals and groups that would like to participate may
call 441-1347 for more information.