Volunteers needed: Plans set for 40th annual Earth Day cleanup at Mill Creek MetroParks

About 150 Boy Scouts from the Youngstown area are pitching in to clear litter and winter debris from the Mill Creek MetroParks, in recognition of Earth Day on April 22. But with more than 40 MetroParks locations in the area, they’ll need some help, according to a Thursday news release from the Boy Scouts of America Great Trail Council. The 40th Annual Mill Creek MetroParks Earth Day Cleanup is set for 9 a.m. to noon April 23 — rain or shine — throughout the MetroParks. Coordinators are expected to retrieve supplies from the Wick Recreation Area’s Bresko Pavilion, 1861 McCollum Road, before meeting with teams around the MetroParks.

More volunteer help is needed along the MetroParks’ shorelines and creeks, the release states. Cleanup efforts will be focused around Mill Creek Park, Yellow Creek Park and the MetroParks Farm. “In 39 years, more than 13,000 participants have volunteered more than 40,000 hours to clean various areas of the MetroParks,” the news release states. “Just in the past 20 years, more than 23,000 bags of trash and 1,500 bags of recyclables along with numerous loose items such as tires, toys, furniture, pipes, wood crates, electronic items and even the proverbial kitchen sink, have been removed. Each year, there are fewer bags of trash but more bags of recyclables.”

The Mahoning County Green Team’s recycling division is expected to provide supplies like trash and recycling bags, gloves and reacher tools. For more information or to sign up yourself or your church group, school, business or family to volunteer, click here to email cleanup chairman Mike Kupec, or call 330-519-3988 by April 11.

Read the original article at Mahoning Matters.