Pack 32 participates in National River Cleanup Day

Santa Clara, CA, May 22, 2011 - The annual National River Cleanup Day was held on Saturday May 21st and was organized by the Creek Connections Action Group to help clean up Santa Clara County's waterways. Santa Clara’s Cub Scout Pack 32 and Daisy Troop 60650 helped collecting 350 lbs of trash and 10 pounds of recyclables along both sides of a 1.25 mile stretch of San Tomas Aquino Creek near Great America and Tasman, close to where the creek flows into the Bay.

National River Cleanup Day is an annual service project for our pack, and is one of the best activities to teach our youth about environmental pollution.  It is important to teach our children the basics of sustainability and make them understand that keeping our watersheds clean has a direct impact on the water quality in our community.

A total of 55 volunteers participated in the cleanup of Site 12 on San Tomas Aquino Creek, one of the 3 cleanup sites in Santa Clara and one of 43 cleanup sites in Santa Clara County. Among the large amount of trash that was collected, the volunteers found a metal chair, a car rim, lots of golf balls, and a pair of pants.
   
Leading up to the event the Scouts had learned how pollution in the creeks affects the Bay. They learned about recycling and the cumulative effect of litter and presented this information to other Scouts at the 2011 Scout-O-Rama event, held on May 7, 2011. All Scouts who participated in the creek clean up earned their BSA Conservation Good Turn awards.