Anacostia Riverkeeper celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2023 with our ninth year collaborating with Pope Branch Park Restoration Alliance on the MLK Day Clean Waterways Cleanup in honor of Dr. Joseph Glover. This cleanup is my favorite one every year, not because it’s our biggest single draw for volunteers, or our single biggest pull of trash, but because this cleanup was started by Dr. Glover and his neighbors 25 years ago. Led more recently by Dolly Davis, the group organizes multiple cleanups every year and is advocating to convert abandoned train tracks to a trail to combat the illegal dumping plaguing their community.

A total of 417 volunteers joined the cleanup this year, marking the largest turnout not just for this event, but the largest single volunteer event in Anacostia Riverkeeper’s history. The volunteers at our cleanups don’t just pick the trash up and bag it, they also sort it by material and product type to collect data we use for advocacy. The volunteers this year picked up, brought back, sorted, weighed, and recorded nearly five tons of trash, or 9,609 pounds in total. 

Read the full article in the Southwester about our MLK Day Cleanup at the link below!