Record-number 233 volunteers for Garden cleanup at Earth Day event

Steven Howell of the Seven Falls Dancers performs a hoop dance as part of Earth Day activities April 19 outside the Visitor Center at the Garden of the Gods. Other members of the Howell family, who comprise the Seven Falls group, also performed during the event.

Westside Pioneer photo

Record-number 233 volunteers for Garden cleanup at Earth Day event

Earth Day at the Garden of the Gods Visitor & Nature Center not only attracted its usual large crowd April 19, but also a veritable army of people eager to help clean the park.
Dolores Davis, a center spokesperson, said a total of 233 volunteers signed up. The cleanup organizers have told her that is the most ever. The starting time was 8:30 a.m., a half-hour before the event started. Participants represented groups or just came as individuals. Provided with trash bags, “they went out into the park

In a photo looking down from the second floor of the Garden of the Gods Visitor & Nature Center, the Peterson Air Force Fire Department's contribution to Earth Day activities can be seen -- a display table and a truck whose interior offers hands-on fire safety education.

Courtesy of Dolores Davis

and along 30th Street," Davis said. "They did an outstanding job and brought back all kinds of trash, even a beer can from the 1950s.”
       A total of 3,539 people (as recorded by the center's door counters) attended the six hours of festivities, which included presentations, displays, interactive activities, live music and Indian dancing. This number was down about 400 from last year, but Davis said she'd feared it would be even lower, because of rain in the forecast and continuing renovation work on the center that limited building access and reduced the inside space.
       But the rain held off, allowing the programmed activities - more of them held outside this year because of the space issues - to go on without a hitch.
       On the whole, Davis said she felt that the day was in keeping with Earth Day's “concept of environmental stewardship” in caring for the city's “crown jewel, the Garden of the Gods.”
       Note: The photo currently on the home page, showing volunteers lining up to help with the Garden cleanup before the Earth Day event April 19, appears courtesy of Dolores Davis.

Westside Pioneer article
(Posted 4/22/14; Outdoors: Garden of the Gods)

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