2nd Annual Grand River GreenUp

2nd Annual Grand River GreenUp

WMEAC’s D. Schoonmaker organizing GreenUp volunteers

The second annual Grand River GreenUp took place on Saturday, April 21, at Riverside County Park in Ottowa County (from Grand Rapids, head towards Grand Haven on Michigan Drive until you hit Ave 104; take a right and that road will lead you right to the park). About 320 volunteers met in the morning to help clean up the river; it was brisk outside, and myself I arrived a bit late to find the GreenUp crew milling about, talking, drinking coffee out of thermoses and registering at tables manned by other volunteers. Volunteers were handed gloves, bags for trash and bags for recyclables, and an organic tee shirt with the event sponsors on the back and my own design on the front; something I had been very excited about.

Volunteers on bus to worksite

Volunteers broke into teams and loaded onto school buses, which transported the teams to different sites along a six mile portion of the Grand.

All told, about 5,840 pounds of trash was collected, 340 pounds of recycling sorted and 2,975 pounds of scrap metal salvaged. My team worked in a residential and agricultural dumpsite area just off the river, removing old appliances, metal hardware and house ware from the ground. 

Notably, the support of the CarbonNeutral Company helped the event to go carbon neutral, offsetting the estimated two tons of carbon emissions generated by the volunteers’ vehicles.

H.N.WRIGHT. GreenUp Tee and Facepainting

At the tail end of the event, after a community lunch, I volunteered to do facepainting for the young volunteers.

Below is the final image of the GreenUp Tee; process: Tracing onto mylar paper of a refined sketch in blue and green Sharpee thin tip marker in respective layers; layers scanned and flattened in Photoshop; PanTone colors selected and line work cleaned up digitally. Click here to see the earlier GreenUp Tee process.