To celebrate Earth Day, Occoquan Elementary School would like for you to join us for a clean up of the playgrounds and the Sharon Lake Memorial Picnic Area behind the school.
This idea started in 2015 when I took a walk around the field behind the school with my daughter and thought "Wow, This place needs a CITO." Within the week I contacted the Principal and got permission to have one on the grounds. Check out some of the quotes below in the "looking Back" sections to see what kind of stuff we pulled out of there.
Good news is that our group has made a lasting impact. The playground has considerable less trash each time we have one, and with last years removal of the soccer goal posts the area has less beer bottles to pick up.
CITO stands for Cache In Trash Out. It’s the geocacher’s approach to keeping our game board (i.e. the entire planet) in great shape. Geocachers gather together to pick up trash, remove invasive species, repair trails and more! Also all geocachers who participate in a CITO between March 1st to May 31st will earn a pretty sweet new souvenir!
April 6, 2019
9:00 a.m. until 10:30 a.m.
Occoquan Elementary School
12915 Occoquan Rd
Bags for the clean up have been provided by NoVAGO, and I will have some gloves at the starting coords. You WILL get dirty, so dress appropriately, and wear good footwear. The fields could be soggy. The woodline has thorns and some poison ivy. Your garden gloves will come in handy as well. Our planned cleanup area is marked in red on the picture below. Disabled cachers are invited as well. The school has a paved lot that could be policed easily by wheelchair.
Approved by Principal Michael "Buddy" Lint
A Look Back at the 2018 Occoquan Elementary Cito IV (GC7MZH9)
"The weather was perfect for walking the grounds and ridding the area of unsightly trash." - Gaiter Man
"It's nice to see that the amount of trash has decreased year after year." - Cache Clown 76
"I concentrated on the front fenceline as I do each year and quickly had a bag full. This time I blame Windmaggedon for all the extra trash." - Awesnap
A Look Back at the 2017 Occoquan Elementary Cito III (GC6ZE0A)
"Joined the effort to beautify Occoquan Elementary by clearing out PI and briars." - Invaluable1
"I had read the past years caches of this CITO and the good news is that there was far less trash than the previous years. But still found were beer bottles, an empty pack of cigarettes, bags stuck on brambles and plenty of broken glass on the edges of the playground and field." - Salmon4549
"I spent most of the hour picking up lots and lots of plastic water bottle caps." - Pfenix
"One of the teachers stopped me and thanked us for our clean up efforts today." - Awesnap
A Look Back at the 2016 Occoquan Elementary Cito II (GC6B458)
"Unbelievable, the amount of trash on school grounds there?!? I wished we snapped a photo of the bottle cap myriad which Pirate Rat discovered. We picked up all kinds of beer bottles and caps, everything from Corona, Modelo, Heineken... Apparently, that's the place to party?!? Even found a pot pipe (and yes, it got tossed out with the rest of the trash)!!" - JPWAVE
"It's amazing how much junk is here, especially given the fact that there was a CITO last year." - ReedKickball
"It's always surprising the amount and type of trash that's pulled out of the playground perimeter. This year there was even evidence of a campfire surrounded by beer caps and glass." - ZatnKat
"And Heineken beats out Corona for the win. Lots of beer bottles." - combatnurse2003
for BEST CITO
A Look Back at the 2015 Occoquan Elementary Cito (GC5P7QM)
"I'm amazed at how much trash we picked up in just over an hour." - VPDJ
"The cartons of empties probably stunned me the most...it certainly never occurs to me to grab some brewskies and head over to the woods of an elementary school to get my party on." - HooClass2002
"Guess we now know where people around here go to drink their Heineken's. Dang that was a lot of bottles!" - PirateRat
"Everyone headed off to the farthest reaches of the school grounds, so I decided to just hang back and pick up around the playground and parking lot. There was enough trash there to fill a 30 gallon bag." - BeatleJeff