Early Start on the Trash Walk Project!

(First pieces of the First Weekly Dreem Reality Trash Walk!)

At the last Directors meeting we had, inspired by the Inauguration trash pickup, we decided that we were going to organize weekly trash walks. We got back in to Santa Cruz on Tuesday night and then did our first trash walk Thursday morning, the 29th!

Being back in the warm West Coast with the incredibly beautiful ocean and trees and people, it was easy to make the choice to move our trash walk up a week (originally planned to start the week of the 1st). Phoenix, our roommate Ashley, her dog Lindsay Lohan, and I made the first walk. The loop only totaled about a mile or so but we managed to fill one whole trash bag. a VAST difference from DC where you could stand in the same spot for 20 minutes and the wind would blow you enough trash to fill one and a half bags...as WELL as the trash bag to put it in.

We received a few "Thank You's" from people that were passing by as we dipped into the gutters, cleaned up bus stops, and pulled wrappers and ripped up scratch-off tickets from the grass and bushes. Definitely a rewarding feeling when you look around and see that it truly does make a significant difference.

In beach towns like Santa Cruz it feels especially important to do trash walks. Most of the street drains lead right to the Ocean which is constantly moving with sea life. I'm definitely proud of us! We hope to perhaps gather more people to join in the trash walks as time goes on, and perhaps even to reach people in other areas to start there own. Maybe on our website (which is still in construction) we can have a page dedicated to stories of different trash walks across the States. That would be beautiful!

~Dani