2022 Annual Reflection: Return to Community

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Images from 2022 PCS programs and tabling events. Top left: Navarre Elementary students on a Sandpiper science cruise. Bottom left: Two Scouts stenciling a storm drain. Center: Glass City Marathon Green Team volunteers. Top right: PCS staff Kayla and Liv at Naturally OregonFest. Bottom right: A volunteer removes a construction barrel from Delaware Island on the Maumee River.Carrying last year’s focus on clean-on-your-own volunteering forward, in 2022 the PCS Team continued to promote Clean Your Streams 365 and our Remote Kickoff week leading up to Clean Your Streams Day. However, we also began to return to larger gatherings for in-person programming, outreach, and education, very glad to be safely in shared space with our community again. Compared to last year, we were able to offer more Get the Lead Out sessions, more Storm Drain Marking sessions, and many more staff-lead CYS 365 clean-ups. Clean Your Streams Day participation flourished with 173 more volunteers than last year. Across all our clean-up programs, PCS volunteers removed more than twice as much Northwest Ohio marine debris in 2022 than 2021, with our 2022 total weighing in at 26,320 pounds. This is an incredible feat!

PCS also had a busy year supporting community projects and partnerships. These included educational outreach and clean-ups alongside the City of Toledo’s Trash Trappers, offering stewardship opportunities for TPS students in the UT Lake Erie Center’s “Floating Laboratory on Watershed Science” program, and kicking off our efforts coordinating volunteer water monitoring in Western Lake Erie basin with “Community Water Action in Toledo.” As we’ve done since our founding, we’ve proudly continued our leadership of the Maumee AOC Advisory Committee and its work.

PCS’s adaptation and growth during a time of change are only possible through the generosity of our donors, volunteers, and community partners. If you’d like to make PCS a part of your holiday giving, we encourage you to give via our Facebook Fundraiser. This year, Facebook specifically matches recurring donations, so you can make your gift to Partners for Clean Streams go even further. After your initial donation, your second donation made before December 31, 2022 (up to $100) may be be doubled! You can also donate using our secure PayPal link or send a check to PO Box 203 Perrysburg, OH 43552.

Thank you for keeping “Current” in 2022, and we look forward to seeing you in 2023!