Explore Plano 2017 Featured Challenge: Litter Clean-up

What is Explore Plano?

Explore Plano is the City of Plano’s exclusive checklist of the coolest things going on across Plano during Summer ‘17. At each stop, there will be a photo challenge that leads to the opportunity to win prizes. Explore Plano runs June 1-August 31. At the Explore Plano website, all of the challenges are listed out by month, and most of the challenges are completely free!

This Week’s Featured #ExplorePlano Challenge:

If you’re looking to protect the planet this summer, why not start right here in Plano? So much of our fair city’s beauty and cleanliness comes from citizen volunteers that take to the streets and creeks to take out the trash. This week’s #ExplorePlano challenge is to organize a litter cleanup in your neighborhood.

We’ve all seen those pictures where the animals are tangled up in plastic, or where a tree is growing through a discarded chunk of metal. That’s the exact opposite of what we want in Plano. For that reason, the City of Plano is proud to provide free cleanup supplies to volunteer groups who register online. Most cleanups take about two hours and take place in Plano’s parks, trails, creeks, and neighborhoods.

City of Plano Litter Cleanup

Grab a group of friends or even your Scouts or church group (with preferably one adult for every 12 kids) and sign up this week! If it helps, you can consider cleaning up litter a bit of an avant garde scavenger hunt. In the past, volunteers have found a quarantine sign, a kayak and even a wheelchair. Of course, the real treasure is that you’ll leave your little piece of Plano better than how you found it.

Bonus: The next time you venture out for a walk in the park, you’ll be happy to feel one with nature and not one with the runaway contents of a nearby dumpster.

How to Win Cool Stuff:

  • Take “before-and-after” photos of your clean zone and post to Instagram, Facebook or Twitter
  • Be sure to use the hashtag #ExplorePlano
  • The City of Plano will draw a winner (almost) every week, based on who uses the hashtag
  • Winners will receive a mystery prize pack (which may include any of the following: theatre tickets, pool passes, recreation center passes, gift cards and more!)

Did You Know?

  • You can see some of the weird things volunteers have cleaned up in the past here.
  • Groups of 25 and more can reserve the City of Plano’s Community Cleanup Trailer, which is stocked full of supplies.
  • If you clean up litter, you are technically now one of Captain Planet’s BFFs.

Meet a Friendly Face in the Sustainability Division:

Monica Maxwell, Litter Awareness Coordinator for the City of Plano

Monica Maxwell is the Litter Awareness Coordinator for the City of Plano’s Sustainability & Environmental Education Division. She’s worked for the city since November 2016. Monica says, “I am inspired by how litter education, prevention and cleanups make a difference not only in Plano’s waterways, but also in Texas rivers, lakes and the ocean.”

Explore Plano 2017 Challenges > Sign up for Litter Clean-up >

The above post is sponsored content.

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