The City of Goleta is preparing to launch its newly enhanced Beautify Goleta program on March 26! We held our first Neighborhood Captains meeting virtually on January 26th and are pleased with the participation we had – over 30 people attended! But we still need more help to make this volunteer community clean-up program a success! You can volunteer to participate or be a Neighborhood Captain. Captains will take the lead on cleanup events around town by helping to coordinate, organize and run their local cleanups, and can be individuals, organizations or community groups.
If you are interested in being a part of the first ever Beautify Goleta Team, please sign up here. The City will hold another Captains meeting in mid-March. Watch our video in English or Spanish to hear directly from the City’s Environmental Services Division on this exciting, year-long community cleanup program.
Beautify Goleta originally started in 2016 as a way to help residents clean their homes and yards with free bulky items collections. From fall 2016 to fall 2019, the City held 16 events, collecting more than 60 tons (120,000 pounds) of material, of which 75% was diverted from the landfill and recycled or reused. Starting this spring, Beautify Goleta is expanding to a community cleanup program that will also host Saturday morning cleanup events every other month in neighborhoods throughout the City. The cleanup events can be tailored for each neighborhood to fit what that area needs.
Thank you to everyone who attended our first meeting, which included: our new neighborhood captains; Council member Roger Aceves, the Beautify Goleta founder; Goleta City staff; and organizations who have been organizing their own cleanups or participated in existing cleanups for years, who have been guiding and working closely with the City as part of the wider local network. These organizations include Explore Ecology, Santa Barbara ChannelKeepers, UCSB, Community West Bank, Rotary Club of Goleta, Urban Creeks Council, and the Environmental Defense Center, among others.
Visit www.CityofGoleta.org/BeautifyGoleta for more information.
Pictured: City of Goleta Environmental Services Division, from left-to-right: Mary Graham, Melissa Nelson, and Dan Rowell