Rainy Day Cleanup...Who Knew?

Coyote Creek Cleanup Continues Despite First Major Rains
by Deb Kramer

Woke up at 6 AM to a downpour of rain. "Great," I thought. "We'd be lucky to have 30 people show up for our scheduled October cleanup."

Just the day before, we had 91 people registered to participate in our creek cleanup. My soggy self hoped for some relief, especially since my poor Subaru was packed to the gills with supplies from the City of San Jose's Anti-Litter Program.

SJSU Alpha Phi Omega volunteers

In the pouring rain, we setup. SJSU Alpha Phi Omega provided support with signups and team leadership. Sierra Club Loma Prieta was out to help coordinate the site staging area. The San Jose Ranger was waiting in the wings. Would they come?

What a surprise when 94 people came to show their support to clean Coyote Creek. We were split into three major groups working from Tully Ball Fields and Capitol Expressway. Together, we pulled out just over four tons of trash, the equivalent of four Fiat 500s. That's a lot of trash!

Bellarmine College Prep boys
haul up a safe...
already cracked open.

As we worked through the drizzle which turned into sunshine, smiling faces showed me that the effort to host these cleanups is so rewarding for the participants. 


As one participant commented, "You never know what you might find." Toilets, carpet, sleeping bags, shopping carts, cinder blocks, bricks, mounds of plastic wire coverings, a Republic of Poland ID card, rolling pin, office chairs, bras, concrete...all examples of items we pulled out this time.

Some of the Girl Scouts 
hauled out a huge suitcase.

When asked, people commented that they learned:

"I was amazed at the disregard towards the ecosystem of the creek.""Just by taking a few hours out of your day, you can do a lot.""There is trash EVERYWHERE and in the most obscure places."

Most people found that the most rewarding part of the effort was to "see the difference that we make together" to clean the creek. Others commented that it was "neat to see people come together" towards a common cause. Yet others enjoyed "making new friends" and "working on a project with my fellow Bells."

Cleanup day trash unloaded 
from compactor truck

Of course, some of the most amazing things that people noticed was the sheer volume of trash they were able to pull out of the creek. 

Go team! I am so grateful to our volunteers who come out even in the pouring rain to clean up Coyote Creek. See more photos on our Facebook page. We look forward to seeing you at our next cleanup on November 15 at Yerba Buena Road.

About 50 volunteers and half the trash collected at this spot. Great job all!