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EPA and Partners Challenge Downtown Community to Clean Up Atlanta this Earth Day

Release Date: 03/29/2012
Contact Information: Davina Marraccini, (404) 562-8293, [email protected]

(ATLANTA – Mar. 29, 2012) EPA’s Region 4 Administrator Gwen Keyes Fleming and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed are rolling up their sleeves and challenging the downtown community to do the same and get out and clean up this Earth Day. EPA and the City of Atlanta, together with Sustainable Atlanta and Central Atlanta Progress, are hosting the first-ever Downtown Atlanta Earth Day Cleanup Challenge on Tuesday, April 24, from 9 a.m. to noon.

“On the first Earth Day in 1970, 20 million Americans stood up to demand better environmental safeguards, and vast improvement have been made since to reduce pollution in the air we breathe, the water we use and the communities we live in,” said EPA Region 4 Administrator Fleming. “I invite you to join us in this one-day cleanup effort right here in Downtown Atlanta. We can all make a difference and—together—we can make a really big difference.”

"Each year Earth Day provides us a timely opportunity to remember the importance of our precious natural resources while also making an impact on preserving those resources for future generations," said Mayor Reed. "I am delighted to collaborate with our partners on these vital projects that will make downtown Atlanta a cleaner place for residents and visitors to enjoy."

The Challenge is a service opportunity open to all individuals and teams from interested corporations, colleges, organizations and community groups— along with federal, state and city agencies—to get out and clean up the downtown area. Participants will pick up litter and also tackle some of Atlanta’s in-town communities’ wish lists of beautification projects (tree planting, invasive species clearing, landscaping, etc.). Individuals and teams are welcome to suggest their own cleanup or beautification project too.

Participants will be recognized during a public rally immediately following the cleanup in the Centennial Park Pavilion at 11 a.m., where EPA Region 4 Administrator Gwen Keyes Fleming and Mayor Kasim Reed will present awards for the best cleanup and landscaping projects. The rally will also feature performances and remarks from several of metro Atlanta’s own young environmental heroes. The achievements of these young people embody EPA Region 4’s Earth Day 2012 theme, “No Act Too Small, No One Too Small to Act.”

To learn more and register, please visit the Challenge website at: www.earthday2012atlanta.org

Additional Earth Day-related service opportunities and events throughout Atlanta and the Southeastern region are posted at: www.epa.gov/region4/earthday