Clean Communities Day a legacy worth maintaining

In the fall of 1991, FoHVOS implemented the first Clean Communities Day throughout Hopewell Valley. On Saturday, April 15, 2023, FoHVOS will administer its 63rd and final Clean Communities Day as the program transitions to management by Hopewell Township.

Clean Communities Day has been a semi-annual event where volunteers, adorned with gloves and safety vests, spend the day picking up discarded trash from Valley roadways and parks.

Hopewell Township officials notified FoHVOS that they will revamp, update, and administer the program with details still under discussion. FoHVOS trustees learned the news at their February board meeting and reacted with mixed emotions. While disappointed at the end of era, the board took pride in the FoHVOS history of bringing the program to the Valley and its commitment to stewarding Hopewell Valley lands.

Helen Corveleyn, FoHVOS Board Trustee, STEM Coordinator at HVRSD, and a girl scout leader who worked many Clean Communities days said Clean Communities Day was always an opportunity for young people to do one of the most rudimentary tenants of environmentalism, picking up trash and beautifying the space we inhabit. “It got kids outside, actively involved, and had a direct, cause-and-effect relationship on cleaning the environment,” she said.

Corveleyn continued: “When kids are outside and serving their communities in event, like a clean up day, it allows them the comfort of working with a social network of other like-minded kids out in nature, gives them a connection to what it means to steward the earth, and provides them the opportunity to spend a morning outside away from screens and stress.”

The statewide Clean Communities Program was created in 1986 with funding from taxes levied on the sale of litter generating products. 80% of Clean Communities funding goes to municipalities with the remainder to counties, and state parks.

Hopewell Township began receiving Clean Communities funding in 1991 when Ted Stiles, then president of Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space, assured Hopewell Township Committee members that Clean Communities would provide both trash abatement and an easy additional revenue source since FoHVOS would administer the program. While Stiles, namesake of the Ted Stiles Preserve at Baldpate Mountain, is most well known for coordinating land preservation opportunities, he also believed that preservation needs to be augmented with strong stewardship and care and love for the land.

FoHVOS board president Dan Rubenstein joined the board in 1991, the same year that Clean Communities Day efforts began in the Township. “Ted’s idea was simple: find ways to connect kids to nature any way possible. And ‘Clean Communities’ was one such way. It got kids outside and appreciate the beauty of a clean landscape, one that too easily can be degraded by the careless actions of others. Not only did the kids feel that they had done some environmental good, they received a T-shirt to proudly display what they had done, while earning some money for the groups they support. Truly a win all the way around.”

A sense of nostalgia was also common across the board. Ryan Kennedy, FoHVOS vice president, YMCA president and Hopewell Borough Council member, reminisced: “I was a Hopewell Valley 5th grader myself when the program started in 1991. This year, I’ll come full circle with my own 5th (and 9th) grader volunteering again with their friends and scout troops. The memories I have (and maybe just as many T-shirts) are a regular reminder of our community’s commitment to keep Hopewell clean over the years. It was only much later that I connected the FoHVOS logo from those volunteer shirts to the thousands of land preservation markers across our Valley.”

Beth Craighead, FoHVOS Senior Land Steward, received her Clean Communities Coordinator training and certification and has served in that role for the last decade. While FoHVOS was considering automation, Beth still administers the program as it was originally designed. She dispenses territories by assigning areas on a large Hopewell Valley map, provides cleaning supplies, and tracks volunteer hours.

“I have enjoyed working on Clean Communities for the last ten years,” said Ms. Craighead, “It was great to see so many young people take part. I had several groups that had a favorite road or park and cleaned the same one year after year. They would get so excited when they found something unusual and loved to tell me about it.”

Beverage containers and snack packaging are the most common items found. Due to heightened awareness and recent legislation, the prevalence of water bottles and plastic bags has recently begun declining. Craighead noted folks have also found unusual items such as car parts, jewelry, a washing machine, and a hand written novel. Last fall, a small couch and working cell phone were found and the phone was ultimately returned to its owner.

In order to receive Clean Communities funding, Hopewell Township is required to sponsor and publicize at least two community litter cleanups on public lands each year. Hopewell Township Mayor Michael Ruger said: “We appreciate the deep commitment that FoHVOS has provided to this program and the Valley for over 30 years. Starting in the fall, the township will be bringing all the great Clean Communities benefits to township residents.”

Any discussion of Clean Communities must recognize our friends and partners at Pennington Quality Market who supplied hot cocoa and donuts to all volunteers cleaning the Valley.

Kennedy concluded: “So very proud of the legacy that FoHVOS started here, both with cleaning-up and preserving our surroundings. Congratulations and thanks to all who roll up their sleeves and make a difference, one trash bag or one acre at a time.”

To register for FoHVOS’s final clean-up day on April 15, visit fohvos.org.