Friends, strangers extend a loving hand to Mother Nature
Multicultural Family Network spearheads cleanup at Tres Rios wildlife area
Independent Newsmedia
Posted 10/26/20
Thanks to two community-minded families who had a little help from friends and strangers, an Avondale wetland area that draws nature lovers from around the Valley got a much-needed spruce up recently.
You must be a member to read this story.
Join our family of readers for as little as $5 per month and support local, unbiased journalism.
Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here
Otherwise, follow the link below to join.
To Our Valued Readers –
Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.
For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.
Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.
Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.
Need to set up your free e-Newspaper all-access account? click here.
Non-subscribers
Click here to see your options for becoming a subscriber.
Register to comment
Click here create a free account for posting comments.
Note that free accounts do not include access to premium content on this site.
I am anchor
ENVIRONMENT
Friends, strangers extend a loving hand to Mother Nature
Multicultural Family Network spearheads cleanup at Tres Rios wildlife area
Posted
If you’re old enough to drive a car to visit here, you’re old enough to carry out your own trash.”
Alivia Brownlee, 7
LEARN MORE
Tres Rios Base and Meridian Wildlife Area, 7602 S. Avondale Blvd. in Avondale, is a 200-acre wetland and riparian habitat on the north bank of Gila River at its confluence with the Salt River. It is home to hundreds of species of wildlife and plant life. For more information about the area, visitazgfd.com/wildlife/viewing/wheretogo/base.
For more information on the Tres Rios Nature Festival scheduled for Feb. 27-28, 2021, visit tresriosnaturefestival.com.
The Multicultural Family Network is an Avondale-based nonprofit created to build networks of peace through programs and services empowering families, communities and corporations of more than one culture. For more information, visit multiculturalfamilynetwork.com.
Independent Newsmedia
Thanks to two community-minded families who had a little help from friends and strangers, an Avondale wetland area that draws nature lovers from around the Valley got a much-needed spruce up recently.
The trash situation at Tres Rios Base and Meridian Wildlife Area, a popular spot for birders, photographers, kayakers and fishing enthusiasts, had gotten out of hand since it was cleaned up before the 2020 Tres Rios Nature Festival in February.
“Our hearts were broken to see this area, which provides a safe place for birds and animals, to be filled with garbage,” said Joy Brownlee of Avondale, who co-founded the Multicultural Family Network nonprofit with her husband, Jerome. “The amount of trash was devastating. It was in the parking lot. It was in the trees. It was on the shore and it was in the water. We knew if we didn’t act fast, it would overwhelm the ecosystem here.”
The couple, who moved to Arizona from San Diego, became passionate about removing trash before it gets into the water system after seeing plastic wash up on nearby beaches daily, decided to do something about the mess at Tres Rios.
They enlisted the help of Clare and Kofi Okyere of O Capital Group, who helped provide supplies along with Home Depot and Sam’s Club.
Both families arrived at the site east of Phoenix Raceway at 7 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 18, with their children, and got to work.
“The seven of us recruited friends, families and strangers to help,” Ms. Brownlee said, noting that about 25 people in total helped gather about 1,150 gallons of trash during the three-hour cleanup.
“We began the messy, heartbreaking, disgusting work of picking up other people’s hurtful choices: beer bottles, diapers, fishing lines, food containers, human waste in plastic containers, toilet paper, and trash upon trash upon trash,” she said. “It brought me to getting physically ill seeing some of the things human beings have done and left behind here. Nobody should have to clean up these items. Yet, if we don’t help make this area clean our kids won’t be able to kayak and bird-watch here. I am afraid at the pace of this destruction this ecosystem can’t keep up, and this area will be closed to the public.”
When they wanted to give up, someone would show up and pitch in.
“Complete strangers took a mask, gloves, trash bag and rake when offered them, and jumped in to join our family. They expressed sorrow over the devastating trash also and wanted to help,” Ms. Brownlee said.
Among those who helped were an Avondale photographer named Ashley and a family from Ghana, who picked up trash and provided additional supplies.
“Several people walked by and didn’t help, saying it wasn’t their problem, that they were there to fish, not clean up other people’s trash. Others without hesitation grabbed the masks, gloves and rakes offered to them and delayed their fun for an hour to help remove trash,” Ms. Brownlee said. “It was at this moment that as individuals and as a community, I realized we may not choose the mess we see in front of us, but we can always choose how we respond.”
In the end, they filled 26, 55-gallon trash bags for the Brownlees to haul away.
“We watched a fish hop out of the water before we left, and it felt like a thank you,” Ms. Brownlee said. “We hope that our community can come together to keep this area clean. We brainstormed some solutions such as enact ‘pack in pack out’ education programs here, patrol the area, provide penalties for littering, and create trash collection systems here.
“There’s a lot we could do as a community, but none would replace the individual responsibility needed for humans who visit this area," Ms. Brownlee said. "As our 7-year-old daughter, Alivia said, ‘If you’re old enough to drive a car to visit here, you’re old enough to carry out your own trash.’”
Anyone interested in participating in future cleanups may email info@multiculturalfamilynetwork.com.