What a large team effort it was – nearly 300 volunteers collected 2,550 lbs of trash across SOLVE’s Portland-area cleanups last weekend.

In the Lloyd, Lloyd EcoDistrict, SOLVE and Veterans for Peace volunteers made excellent progress in cleaning up Peace Memorial Park, the Eastbank Esplanade, the surrounding areas. Skip to the bottom to see many pictures from the day!

The Peace Memorial Park / Eastbank Esplanade Numbers:

• 20+ mask-wearing volunteers gave a combined 50+ hours of their time to clean up our neighborhood.
• 36 trash bags filled up with 252 pounds of collected garbage.
• 3 Community Organizations (Lloyd EcoDistrict, SOLVE, Veterans for Peace) came together to collaborate on a community project.
• 1 Landscaping Company (Oregon Gardens Landscaping Co.) helped us make great progress in trimming back invasive species and getting the weeds and lawn under control.
• 13 large bags of organic vegetation debris bagged up to be composted.
• 1 large truck-bed filled with removed invasive berry vines and trimmings from trees.

A big thank you to everyone who helped out to make progress on cleaning up the area and restore the park. A special shout out to Kevin Hughes, who helped to coordinate the event with SOLVE and the landscaper.

With the pandemic, we’ve been unable to do any large work parties for much of the year and this event helped to make up for some of the missed time!

We’re not done yet, though:

Upcoming Volunteer Events

We’ll be organizing more volunteer events in August and September. We currently have one scheduled on Sunday, August 30th. We’re looking 5-8 volunteers to pick-up garbage, weed whack, or mow. These days are “bring your own clean-up/landscaping supplies” events.

Please use this link to see more information and to sign up for volunteer for tasks. If you have questions contact Joshua@ecolloyd.org.

Long Term Vision

Connected to the Eastbank Esplanade, intersected by one of Portland’s busiest bikeways, and graced with expansive views of the Willamette River and the downtown skyline, Peace Memorial Park was established as a public place to honor victims of war, both military and civilian. Since we have joined in partnership with Veterans for Peace, the vision of the space has expanded to honor the intersection of conflict, climate and social justice.

We envision a small public park that has a multiplicity of narrative layers happening at once—just as all places do—and that these layers weave together to help tell a story that explains, validates and offers hope for our collective future.

Learn more about the community’s vision of the park and ongoing redesign efforts here.

Pictures from the July 2020 Cleanup

Tags: cleanup, Peace Memorial Park, Pollinator Garden, Pollinator Placemaking, SOLVE, Veterans for Peace