Bartram’s Garden gets major cleanup on Earth Day

Volunteers celebrating Earth Day picked up more than 1,000 pounds of trash at Bartram’s Garden Friday, thanks to the helping hands of United by Blue, the National Wildlife Federation and staff from the Democratic National Convention.

“In one hour and 10 minutes, you all did a fantastic job of picking up trash and other gardening and wood-building projects. Today, alone, we picked up 1,036pounds.It was a very even balance of plastics and mixed trash, so all of that plastic is going to be recycled versus ending up right in waterways,” said Kelly Offner, cleanups associatewith United by Blue.

“Eighty percent of trash that ends up in waterways is land-based, so you did a huge effort here by preventing that trash from getting into our waterways,” she added.

The Rev. Leah D. Daughtry, CEO of the Democratic National Convention, said the DNC joined forces to cleanup the wildlife sanctuaryin an effort to leave a lasting, positive impact on the convention’s host city.

“Since 1970, millions of Americans have come together to raise the level of awareness about our environment in which we live. As a pastor, it is my firm belief that the earth is a gift that has been given to us, and we are stewards — caretakers—and it is our responsibility to take care of this precious gift,” she said.

Maitreyi Roy, executive director of Bartram’s Garden, praised the staff and volunteers for their hard work.

“What you’ve done today will make this place so much more of an outdoor classroom for the 9,000 kids that come here from our public schools,” she said.

“What you’ve done will make this an outdoor living room for the southwest community. This is a community that really needs this kind of a respite.”