CATOOSA CLEANUP
Nearly 300 turn out for ‘Clean Catoosa’
On Saturday, April 27, 287 local folks, mostly from Catoosa County and its cities, showed up early in the morning to help make their community a more beautiful place.
Clean Catoosa was a giant cleanup and beautification project spearheaded by the Ringgold-based LIFT Youth Center.
“Events like this one,” says Tina Pinkston, CFO of LIFT and coordinator of Clean Catoosa, “bring students and adults together alongside many partners and leaders in our area for a greater good. If we can help one student, one family or one company care more for their local environment then we think it’s helping them to care for each other as well.”
Pinkston says the cities of Ringgold and Fort Oglethorpe created most of the 26 work projects planned for the day, but some were arranged by private groups. Helping to complete those projects were city and county employees, members of local businesses, schools and non-profits, and residents from the community.
Volunteers met up with their team leaders on the morning of the event, then spread out to pick up trash, plant trees and flowers, spread mulch and collect recyclables.
Some even took to boats, canoes and kayaks to clean up four sections of South and West Chickamauga Creeks. Teams also labeled storm water drains to warn people that they were installed for rain water and nothing else.
After several hours of intense work, everyone gathered at Northwest Georgia Amphitheater for lunch, entertainment and activities.
Pinkston says that 90 volunteers collaborated to make the post-work lunch and events a success. Members of the Catoosa County Fire Department served up the food and there were 18 activity booths for children and others.
Volunteers could make pollinator cookies, create recycled art, build bird houses and feeders, learn some yoga or how to juggle, hold kittens, get their faces painted, practice planting seeds and learn about composting. The “Butterfly Lady” was there with her butterfly tent, and groups were there to teach about water and conservation.
“Clean Catoosa 2019 was a great success,” says Pinkston. “LIFT was honored to coordinate this event and is already looking forward to what Clean Catoosa 2020 will bring.”
Fort Oglethorpe City Manager Jenny Simpkins, who participated in the event, expressed her gratitude for the work that went into Clean Catoosa: “Thank you to LIFT’S Tina Pinkston for taking the lead and organizing this outstanding community event. The city of Fort Oglethorpe is honored to support the Clean Catoosa effort, and we greatly appreciate all the volunteers who spent their Saturday planting flowers in our parks, placing informational stickers on our storm drains, and cleaning our roads and waterways.”