Welcome! Friday 10/11/2024     11:19 PM  
TRASH BASH

UPPER BUFFALO BAYOU SITE
 TERRY HERSHEY PARK

Trash Bash began as part of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s Clean Rivers Program 18 years ago. It has since become a community wide event funded by the Texas Conservation Fund and generous local sponsors (such as HGAC, Republic Services, The Greensheet and  Nestle Waters) and run by volunteer groups.
 
There are now seventeen sites across the Houston area including locations such as Armand Bayou, Brays Bayou, Galveston Bay, Lake Conroe, Lake Houston, White Oak Bayou and our own Buffalo Bayou.
 
The event always takes place, rain or shine, on the last Saturday of March.
 
The primary goal of volunteers participating in the Trash Bash event is to collect as much trash and as many recyclables from our waterways as possible during the morning hours. Along the way, the event coordinators hope to accomplish the event’s mission of promoting “environmental stewardship of our watershed through public education by utilizing hands-on educational tools and by developing partnerships between environmental, governmental, and private organizations.” 
 
The event’s seventeen sites are regionally coordinated by the Houston-Galveston Area Council (HGAC) and three key people including Kristi Corse (regional coordinator and HGAC public outreach and volunteer coordinator), Lori Traweek (president of the Texas Conservation Fund and manager of operations for the Gulf Coast Waste Disposal Authority) and a new Trash Bash Assistant Coordinator, Montryce King. These three leaders spend an enormous amount of time dealing with the financial end of the event and providing all of the logistical support for making sure each location has access to the vast majority of the services and materials needed such as transportation, hand washing stations, gloves, trash bags, food, water, tents, signs and a basic site budget of $350 (for items such as truck rentals).
 
Each site has its own history and local coordinators who also devote a significant amount of time to the event’s success. 
 
Our site, "Buffalo Bayou Upper" (Terry Hershey Park) was established through the work of Bruce Heiberg, his daughter, and with the support of the Bayou Preservation Association five years ago. Bruce spent several years building support for the site, but wanted to help get a site established on Cypress Creek, near his own home. In 2010, Greg Daniell, the Briar Forest Super Neighborhood Council President, agreed to volunteer to learn the ropes from Bruce and take part in the transition to a new set of local coordinators with the BFSNC in the lead for the Terry Hershey Park location. By 2011, with the support of the Eldridge West Oaks and Memorial Super Neighborhood Councils, the event grew to 642 participants.
 
At least 30 volunteers from the Briar Forest, Eldridge West Oaks and Memorial super neighborhood councils work to staff the Terry Hershey Park site on the day of the event.

THE TARGET - COLLECTING AS MUCH TRASH AND RECYCLABLES AS POSSIBLE OVER A FIVE HOUR PERIOD OF TIME FROM APPROXIMATELY 12 MILES OF STREAM BANK IN TERRY HERSHEY PARK

 
 


 

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