Purpose
One of the four principles of The Community Festival is:
People should strive to conduct their lives in harmony with the environment.
The Cleanup & Recycling Committee (C&R) is responsible for keeping Goodale Park and the surrounding area clean and safe, as well as being earth friendly, starting at the local level, by keeping as much of the collected material as we can from going to the landfill. We try to stress three well-known approaches to do this: REDUCE, REUSE & RECYCLE.
In so doing, C&R allows the massive volume of traffic during the Community Festival to continue throughout its 3 days.
Volunteers are always needed for this often dirty (but totally essential) task; however, the more people who take part in it, the easier it becomes for us to meet the challenge.
Volunteers bringing bags of aluminum cans from the Bozo (Main) Stage area to the Habitat for Humanity booth that is located just North of our C&R Headquarters.
The C&R Committee also encourages and promotes both individuals and community organizations to come together as a pro-active part of the ongoing, behind-the-scenes task of being earth friendly. Most importantly, we work to return the park back as it was when we began to set up the festivities. In most cases the park looks better than when we got there.
These volunteers are carrying out an ongoing duty of hauling bags of trash and recyclables.
When you consider that the total weight of trash & recycling generated by ComFest in recent years has ranged from 20 to 30 T O N S, you will begin to appreciate the scope of our effort!
We have something for everyone to do, young and old, and there is always a need for more dedicated people. Help us meet our goals of keeping Goodale Park nice & clean and, in doing so, respecting the environment!
Learn More
[Foreground] Karen Goodheil and Brad McNeil go over plans with Debbie Halbert.
Who are we looking for at C&R?
There are a few different levels of duties and responsibilities to be had at C&R. The first two are in the field: monitoring the grounds to keep up with the volume of trash; and keeping the area safe from glass & other random, misplaced materials. Then, as you become more aware of those tasks and the festival site, golf cart drivers are needed. And if you are good at being organized, and enjoy interacting with people, there is always a need for upbeat individuals to help out at Volunteer Check In/Out at C&R HeadQuarters (HQ).
Another part of the C&R side of the festival includes the community organizations that are specifically involved with helping out ComFest and vice versa: Friends of Goodale Park, Earth Day, Habitat for Humanity, Keep Columbus Beautiful, 3rd Hand Bike Co-op, and SporePrint InfoShop, just to name a few.
So as you can see, there is more to C&R than slinging trash. And if you are interested in becoming involved please sign up and/or show up at C&R HeadQuarters this year and do your part in helping maintain Mother Earth not only at ComFest, but all year round.
We even collect C O M P O S T A B L E waste, and there are loads of possibilities to grow this approach to reducing our use of landfill space.
Want to learn how to be more green? Learn how to reduce, reuse, and recycle by volunteering with Cleanup & Recycling at ComFest! Members of our committee, and seasoned volunteers, will be available to tell you about what they have learned during their years of experience at V O L U N T E E R . T R A I N I N G sessions that we conduct within a couple of weeks of ComFest. We will announce the 2010 training dates well in advance of the festival. All are held at Goodale Park, on the spot where we will set up our headquarters for the weekend of ComFest (June 25, 26 & 27).
Get Involved
“Hey, can I stow my backpack here?”
Well, we wish we could, but we cannot assume responsibility for it… and we would hate like Hell for you to return from your four hour shift, only to learn that it got ripped off (and yeah, that would be a bummer, dude!) Try to arrive with only what you can carry during your shift.
As you can tell, there are lots of possibilities for how you can volunteer at ComFest C&R. You can always sign up online, and if you are interested in being part of the B I G G E R picture, & have had sufficient prior experience, we could possibly use you on the C&R Committee: weeks, even months before the festival starts, as well as after it seems to be finished, because ComFest is really a year-round gig!
It is very easy to lend a hand. Simply come and sign up for a 4-hour shift. Remember that most daytime shifts are filled in advance by people who sign up online. Be a real champ� and show up (sober) for the tear down process Sunday night, for we always strive to return Goodale Park to the way we got it.
If you are a past volunteer, bring along a friend this time to share the experience of being part of the festival from another angle. Encourage others to take part in keeping our Park and our Planet green.
So remember: our Party With a Purpose does not go on unless we do our part to serve that purpose.
Would you want to work at our check-in headquarters, or would you prefer to work in the field, helping us to get everything cleaned up, and separating out the stuff that can be recycled?
Ask yourself a few questions:-How do I add/take from the Community Festival?
-Did I discourage others from BYOB?
-What did I do to help the Community Festival?
-What are my reasons for attending?
-What did I gain from attending the Community Festival?
For the show to go on, and the activities to take place, everyone should do their part before, during, and after the festival, because without people like Y O U doing their part in the Community Festival, the festivities cannot go on.
Random Acts of Kindness are always a plus.
