Clean Sweep Volunteers Pack the Auditorium

Clean Sweep volunteers, including 140 Scouts and their families, turned up in droves to receive their certificates and custom patches at the annual Clean Sweep Recognition Event on June 12.  Attendance was higher than expected and the auditorium was packed.  Mayor Lauretti noted in his opening remarks that the event may be moved to a larger venue in the future to accommodate the growing number of participants. 

Gil Pastore, Chairman of the Anti-Litter Committee, ran through some statistics for Clean Sweep 2013:  More than 640 participants picked up a total of 340 large garbage bags of litter, 2500 lbs of scrap metal (Boy Scout Troop 28), 3 full pickup truckloads of debris (Land Trust), and 65 cubic yards of garbage hauled from the river (Housatonic River Cleanup, Inc.), not to mention a large assortment of items such as mattresses, tires, and construction debris. 

Chairman Gil Pastore hands out certificates

The Committee started out with seven special awards:

Housatonic River Cleanup, Inc. - "Special Recognition"  

for the largest cleanup in Shelton. This year, 168 people removed an estimated 65 cubic yards from the river and piled it up at the Sunnyside boat ramp.  This is only part of their efforts, however, which also included more volunteers removing litter from the Housatonic in Stratford and Milford. 

Chris Papp -- "Special recognition" for years of cleaning up the Housatonic River. 

Boy Scout Troop 28 - "Heavy Metal Champions" for removing 2500 lbs of debris, mostly scrap metal, from the Wiacek open space. 

Shelton Land Trust and Neighbors - "Best Find" - for pulling an old motorcycle out of the woods, along with three pickup trucks worth of junk from the open space adjacent to Wake Robin Drive. 

Cub Scout Pack 27 - "Volunteer of the Year" - Civic Group Category for removing 41 bags of litter from East Village Park.

Tighe & Bond - "Volunteer of the Year" - Business Category, for removing 25 large garbage bags of litter from parts of Isinglass Road and Huntington Street.

George Waters - "Volunteer of the Year" - Individual category, for tirelessly cleaning up the banks of the Housatonic River by canoe and kayak year round and cleaning up around the Shelton Canal, removing about 30 large bags and other assorted debris from our waterways. 

The Scouts seemed genuinely proud of their certificate, with one overheard saying, "I will treasure this for always!"  Each certificate was personally signed by Mayor Lauretti. Click here a list of those who volunteered for Clean Sweep. 

Picking out a door prize

After the certificate were awarded, the evening ended with door prizes, the highlight for many attendees.