Klickitat County Waste Spring Cleanup

Yesterday we participated in the Klickitat County Solid Waste Spring Cleanup! About two weeks ago I saw a post on FB from the Klickitat County Solid Waste Department advertising a volunteer trash pick up day and thought this was something very do-able for our family. Anthony and Molly have been involved with the soup kitchen for the past year, as well as other volunteer activities via their FFA chapter, but Timothy isn't old enough to do those types of activities yet, and it's been quite some time since Sam and I volunteered to help the community in some way, so I thought why not!? I felt even more motivated to say yes because the kids' bus driver, Tina, who absolutely adores the kids was one of the people who helped organize this volunteer activity.

It's not a secret that I've struggled with immune/health issues for years now. Yesterday morning when I woke up, I wasn't feeling very well, so I was tempted to change my mind and just stay in bed. But I wanted to set an example for the kids, and I knew this was something good for us to do as a family, so I managed to kick myself in the rear and get my act together. 

I am so, so glad we decided to still go! Other than our family, there were 5 other people who attended....2 being the people who organized the event! I was shocked more people didn't show up, but later realized that despite the great event advertising they did, not many people actually saw that advertising, so didn't even know about the event. Blame it on their poor FB algorithm or I don't know....lack of eyes, lol. 

Anyway, we arrived at the High School a bit before 10am. Tina had her trunk open with water bottles, a bunch of cookies, and raffle prizes! Being as it was such a small group, we all won a prize, haha! Timothy won an awesome bird house, Sam a $20 gift certificate to a new bistro in town, and the rest of us a bar of goatmilk soap. Sweet! 

After fueling up with cookies, we put on our vest and gloves, grabbed our little trash grabby thing, and hit the road to the area we would be cleaning.

I'm not lying when I say we had a blast! Who knew picking up trash would be fun!? The weather was perfect, 65* and overcast, so not feeling hot and exhausted kept moral up. I got to take in the wildflower views and chat with my kids, Anthony found a bull snake which was pretty cool, Timothy got his first experience in community service, and Molly and Papa got in some great bonding time while they picked up trash together. The kids even fought over who got to pick up what trash, lol. We worked for about 2 hours before the stretch of road we were working on was complete. 

The funniest part of the day was noticing the van we were driving around in had a "inmate litter crew" sticker on the back. HAHAHA! I'm sooo sad we didn't get a photo of us standing next to the sticker, that would have been hilarious! We laughed our butts off thinking of people driving by and seeing us picking up trash and then seeing the sticker on the van, lol!! 

All in all, it was a good time! It felt good to be outside. It felt good to be with my family. It felt good to give back to the community in some way. And we were given the rest of the cookies to take home when we were all done! Score! We will most definitely participate in future events like this! I think there is to be one in July, hopefully we can make that one if it's not when we are camping. And then I think there is to be one in the Fall as well. 

With love,

Mama Hauck