Volunteers cleared 51 pounds of trash off the streets, sidewalks, and parking lots of Steamboat Sunday, April 2, as part of a community cleanup. 

The city partnered with mission-based apparel company Keep Nature Wild to host a community cleanup as part of the company’s Earth Month initiative. Keep Nature Wild ambassadors set up shop at the bottom of Howelsen Hill at 10 a.m. and stayed until noon.

Steamboat’s community cleanup was among the first to kick off this Earth Month initiative and precedes 115 other community cleanups planned nationwide during April. 

“We have to pick up a pound of trash for every item sold on our website, we do that through group cleanups like this,” said Mallory O’Mahoney, one of Keep Nature Wild’s lead ambassadors for Colorado. 

O’Mahoney and fellow lead ambassador Maddy Evans travel around Colorado hosting these cleanups and developing partnerships along the way. For this cleanup, they partnered with the city, specifically with the help of the city’s Marketing and Communications Coordinator Emily Hines.

Community members showed up to the cleanup stand at the base of Howelsen Hill and were given gloves, a trash grabber and bags. The volunteers would fill the bags and then bring them back for weighing. A handful of volunteers were able to collect over 50 pounds of trash in under two hours. 

“I wasn’t busy today and I try to help out with community things when I can,” volunteer Kiara Reynolds said. “I use the trails all the time, it bugs me to see trash around.”

Keep Nature Wild has a goal to reach 1 million pounds of trash picked up. As of March 1, 864,888 pounds of trash had been picked up through community cleanups. The number continues to skyrocket as more communities have cleanups. A few weeks back O’Mahoney and Evans led a cleanup in Westminster that picked up 1,100 pounds of trash.  

To sign up for one of Keep Nature Wild’s Colorado Earth Month cleanups go to KeepNatureWild.com/pages/earth-day.