EASTHAMPTON — The Nashawannuck Pond Steering Committee in Easthampton will host the annual “Easthampton City-Wide Clean Up Day” on Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m., to get the community involved in cleaning up litter around the city.
Volunteers are asked to bring gloves, rakes and other gardening tools and sign up for a three- or four-hour shift online. After checking in at 50 Payson Ave., participants will travel to a chosen area to help cleanup trash.
“It’s an awareness campaign,” said Liz Provo, organizer of the event and a member of the Nashawannuck Pond Steering Committee. “I really think that litter is something we need to address in the community.”
Originally a joint effort between the Chamber of Commerce and the city, the cleanup day is meant to raise awareness of trash while promoting more sustainable behaviors for the future. Since then, the event is now organized by the pond steering committee.
“We had 85 people come last year,” Provo said. “This year, we already have 75 people signed up and we’re asking for 118. I think more people are turning out for this year.”
In addition to a regular clean up, the event will also feature the use of a smartphone application called “Litterati,” where users can geotag the location of the litter and the place where it was found. Users assign hashtags and upload a photo to the database, and the app creates a map of litter across the local community.
“When it maps out the entire community, you can see pockets of where there’s litter and where there isn’t,” Provo said. “When we know where the litter is, we can start to see what we can do consistently over time to help change those behaviors.”
Provo said that she hopes the app will also get younger people to join.
“Kids are more technology savvy than most,” Provo said. “Hopefully this app can help them get involved in the clean up.”
Raffles will be held for prizes among those who volunteer to help in the citywide cleanup day. To volunteer and enter for the raffle, interested participants can visit www.nashawannuckpond.org. The event has a rain date of Sunday.