Citywide Clean Up is another way to keep our earth clean. The Anchorage Chamber of Commerce is in charge of the Citywide Clean Up. Anchorage has been participating in this event for 45 years. The purpose of this event is to clean up unwanted trash out of the community, which includes neighborhoods, parks, and streets. It begins on May 1st and ends on May 12th. The cleaning takes place shortly after the snow melts. In Alaska a lot of trash tends to magically disappear in the snow. Then the sun comes out and the snow melts, revealing the trash that was once unseen. It is a good thing that there are services like this otherwise Alaska’s nature wouldn’t be as clean. During the week of the clean up, schools, buisnesses and families get their bags to clean. Dimond High School has some oppurtunities to become involved with this service. The biggest group involved is ROTC. Freshman Troy McCallson said, “I’ve been participating in this event since I was younger, Now that I’m older it’s going to be fun doing it with people in my school.” Key club and Z club are other groups involved in the clean up. They do not require everybody in the group to sign up for it but, the group does offer it as a chance of community invovlement. The Citywide Clean Up is the largest and longest-standing community service event, and all of those hours truely do make a big difference. Junior John Wynne III said, “Last year we collected about 1,500 tons of trash, according to the Citywide Clean Up’s website.” That adds up to about 187 elephants. It is extremely amazing what people can do in just one week. Each person is allowed 2 orange large trash bags to pick up trash, which are located at all Fred Meyers in Anchorage and Eagle River. When you are finished filling the bags they must be brought to a landfill or transfer station. These bags are accepted at The Anchorage Regional Landfill, Anchorage Central Transfer Station, and Girdwood Transfer Station for no charge during the week of Citywide Cleanup. After all the cleaning is done Anchorage could look a lot better. When leaving the house people should not have to see trash everywhere they look. So how do you get kids involved to clean the city when they don’t even want to clean their rooms? Perhaps if you bring up the Super Sweepers program they will be a little more interested. This takes place from 10 until 2 on Saturday May 12. Thousands students will be picking up trash around their schools and neighborhoods. Participating in this you earn the chance to win a new Apple iPod Shuffle. There are many reasons to participate in this event, because It can bring people together and help our community. While cleaning trash you get out of the house, and you get to enjoy the outdoors.