One of the most prolific Preserve organizers is a high school student named Jillian in Portland, Oregon. Over the past year, Jillian has organized over 30 micro-cleanups in her neighborhood parks and along the trails of a nearby forest. Some of the cleanups she has led include:

A cleanup of Patterson Park where her and 5 other volunteers spent an afternoon picking up trash along the walking paths and playground area. They filled 3 large garbage bags with things like plastic bottles, food wrappers, cigarette butts and stray pieces of clothing or toys left behind.

A cleanup of Baker Creek, which is a small wooded area with hiking trails near her school. Jillian organized this cleanup with some classmates after school one day. They walked the trails with trash pickers and bags, filling about 10 bags total with all sorts of debris that had accumulated like plastic grocery bags tangled in bushes, brokenglass bottles, cardboard boxes and foam packaging materials.

One of Jillian’s most ambitious cleanups was along 2 miles of the Wildwood Trail, a popular hiking route outside of Portland. For this she recruited 15 volunteers through Preserve. They spread out in teams of 2-3 people along the trail for 2 hours picking up garbage. Their efforts filled a total of 25 heavy duty garbage bags with trash picked up from the trails and surrounding forest areas.

In Philadelphia, a group of neighbors in the Brewerytown neighborhood have been very active on the Preserve app organizing cleanups. Some of the cleanups they have led include:

A cleanup of the neighborhood playground at Hunting Park that attracted over 20 volunteers one Saturday morning. The playground area and equipment was in need of some TLC. Volunteers power washed benches and equipment, weeded garden beds, trimmed back overgrown trees/shrubs, and picked up several large bags of litter.

A cleanup along the banks of the Schuylkill River near the neighborhood. 10 volunteers braved a chilly morning to walk 1 mile along both sides of the river, removing any debris that had washed up or blown in. They filled about 15 garbage bags total with all sorts of water-logged trash.

A street by street cleanup walking many of the residential blocks picking up stray litter. About 8 volunteers participated in this on an afternoon. They were able to cover about 10 blocks in a few hours, filling multiple bags with things like plastic water bottles, coffee cups and food wrappers left behind.

Another highly active organizer on Preserve is a college environmental club at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Some of the cleanups they have led include:

A cleanup at a local elementary school on a Saturday where over 30 volunteers from their club and the surrounding neighborhood came out to spruce up the school grounds. Volunteers weeded and cleaned up landscaping beds, repainted faded playground equipment, power washed sidewalks, and removed over 100 pounds of trash and debris from the premises that filled 10 large garbage bins.

Multiple cleanups at a nature preserve just outside of Tucson where hiking and biking trails accumulated litter and debris over time. About 15 volunteers participated in each of these cleanups, broken up into teams to cover more ground efficiently. They would spend 2-3 hours combing the trails, brush and surrounding desert areas removing trash like water bottles, food wrappers, plastic bags, clothing, tires and discarded equipment left behind by irresponsible users over time.

A river cleanup event organized in partnership with a local conservation group. Over 50 volunteers signed up through Preserve and other recruitment for this effort. Broken into teams they spent the morning picking up trash along 3 miles of the Santa Cruz River. Volunteers removed over 500 pounds of garbage, including tires, appliances, plastic containers and bottles, metal debris and shopping carts that had been carelessly discarded or washed downstream over time.

These are just a few examples of the types of impactful micro-cleanups that have been organized through the Preserve app across different communities in the United States. As you can see, people have utilized the platform to coordinate volunteer cleanups of all sizes, from small neighborhood group efforts to much larger events attracting dozens of participants. Whether it’s picking up a few bags of litter at the local playground or removing hundreds of pounds of trash from a river, every cleanup makes a positive difference in keeping public spaces clean and sustainable for future generations. The Preserve app has proven an effective organizing tool for grassroots environmental stewardship on a local level.