Sister cities 'take out the trash' on Arroyo Days
By Eliav Appelbaum eliav@theacorn.com

Hunter McClure and his friend Jacob Strellner ran along the upper edge of the Arroyo Simi on a recent warm and windy afternoon.

"Mom, there's tadpoles out there! And baseball fields!" Hunter, 7, yelled to his mother, Kristina McClure.

Hunter may have been distracted for a moment, but he and his family- including his mother, father, Doug, and 9yearold sister, Emily- picked up plenty of trash while volunteering during the sixth annual Arroyo Cleanup Day last Saturday.

More than 300 volunteers cleaned up nearly four tons of trash and 160 pounds of recyclable materials from the Tapo Canyon Road portion of the Arroyo, a 10-mile flood control channel that runs through Simi Valley and Moorpark. The junk included 27 shopping carts, a mattress with springs, two bicycle frames, several truck tires, a plastic pool and a highway sign.

The Simi Valley Neighborhood Council sponsored the event together with the city and Waste Management. The cleanup benefited from a $5,000 grant from Keep America Beautiful, the country's largest community improvement program.

"It's huge every year and it keeps getting bigger and bigger," said Ben Gilbert, an executive board member for Neighborhood Council No. 3, who was in charge of organizing this year's event. "This is about community togetherness. Everybody works side by side keeping Simi Valley a beautiful place to live and work."

The city also organizes the annual Coastal Cleanup on the third Saturday of September, when volunteers take on a different part of the Arroyo. Kevin Gieschen, environmental compliance program director for public works, started the Coastal Cleanup in 2000, the first event of its kind in Simi Valley. He was pleased with Saturday's results.

"We're getting more volunteers and having to pick up less trash," Gieschen said, "and that's a great trend."

According to Janet Falat, chairwoman for Neighborhood Council No. 4, volunteers cleared out 11 tons of trash two years ago.

Arroyo Cleanup Day came on the heels of Moorpark's Clean the Arroyo on April 19, an event sponsored by Bagwell Construction Services, Inc., Waste Management and Trader Joe's. About 25 people, including 15 Moorpark High School students, cleaned up a chunk of the Arroyo from Spring Road to Tierra Rejada Road, gathering four truckloads of trash.

"People feel that they can throw their trash everywhere," said Paula Collins, office manager for Bagwell Construction. "This group makes a mission to clean it up."

The Moorpark volunteers found several shopping carts and bicycles- and even clothing items, like shirts, hats and underwear.

"We didn't find any streakers though," joked David Bagwell, owner of Bagwell Construction.

Arroyo Cleanup Day wasn't all about gathering junk and recyclables. One little boy discovered truth in the saying "One man's trash is another man's treasure."