In the aftermath of a bustling holiday weekend, volunteers and city staff unite for the second annual Cascaron Clean Up.
SAN ANTONIO — Bright and early Monday a small army invaded Brackenridge Park.
Their mission was simple: give Mother Nature a helping hand after thousands of campers spent the holiday weekend partying in one of the city’s most beloved natural play places.
While paid staff from the city did most of the heavy lifting, volunteers pitched in to help take out the small trash.
Erin Quintanilla, with the Brackenridge Park Conservancy, said “We call it the Cascaron Clean Up and this is our second year, and a lot of what we’re doing is teeny tiny little pieces, but every bit matters.”
Quintanilla said a park campaign called “Pack it in. Pack it out.” seems to be helping park lovers remember that litter abatement is everyone’s responsibility.
“I actually am surprised by how conscientious the campers have been. There’s people that will say, ‘Oh, it’s trashy, it’s messy,’ but we really have had a really good response from the campers in Brackenridge Park,” Quintanilla said.
Stephen Pompa, the General Manager of Junk.com, committed resources and people power to the effort.
“I know that just having a presence here and being more vocal about it will definitely help people understand what the message really is,” Pompa said, adding they made sure to deliver a large, high visibility trash container early on so that visitors would know there was an easy way to properly dispose of trash.
Pompa said “I’m from San Antonio and we wanted to make sure we take care of the city of San Antonio.”
Quintanilla said the effort was multi-faceted.
“We’ve had small groups of dedicated volunteers here every day, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, passing out trash bags, engaging with the visitors, letting them know about the dumpster and picking up litter,” Quintanilla said.
The transplant, who arrived in San Antonio in 1998, said this is the type of effort that makes her happy to call San Antonio her adopted home.
“It makes me proud. I know there’s always people that want to be negative, but it is a really positive community. I love my community. I’m very proud of how they handled themselves, and even with the rain and the cold, everybody had a great time,” Quintanilla said.
There are community organizations that do water quality improvement projects in local natural areas and parks all year long.
Here are some links: