amarillo, texas

community clean-up on august 28, 2021

After seriously pushing the pace from Oklahoma City, taking old Route 66 across rolling plains and past vast fields of crops, cows, and wind turbines, Chauncey arrives in Amarillo in time for a community clean-up event at Thompson Memorial Park. We partner with Keep Amarillo Clean, run by Babji and Devi Yalamanchili, the local grassroots organizers and experts on litter clean-ups around the whole city. Along with three major city-wide clean-ups throughout the years, they’ve appointed over 50 neighborhood coordinators who help to get their neighbors involved in the effort.

Over 20 volunteers show up to the clean-up event on Saturday morning, many of whom are students at local Palo Duro High School. Small groups spread out throughout the park, and together we pick up, sort, and document 4,366 pieces of litter. It’s our biggest community clean-up haul yet, and we continue to finesse the documentation process to make sure our data is as accurate and useful as possible.