‘Beautify Goleta’

Nearly 50 volunteers pick up more than 250 pounds of trash

The community showed up Saturday to “Beautify Goleta.”

The city of Goleta hosts several of these cleanup events each year, and Saturday’s event brought out volunteers to clean up the city.

Each event spotlights a different neighborhood in Goleta, and the numbers show the results. In 2022, there were 366 volunteers, 4,872 pounds of trash picked up, and 23,010 pounds of bulky items collected. 

“Today we ended up with 48 volunteers who collected over 250 pounds of trash,” Dan Rowell, environmental services specialist for the public works department of the city of Goleta, told the News-Press. “Our bulky item collection ended up with 14 vehicle drop-offs. It was a good turnout at each each site.” 

On Saturday, the spotlight was turned onto Hollister Avenue and surrounding neighborhoods in Old Town Goleta. Residents had access to a free bulky item drop off from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Community West Bank parking lot. 

The parking lot also served as the meeting place for the community cleanup from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., and it was open to anyone who wanted to come help pick-up litter.

Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County (aka Habitat Santa Barbara) hosted the spotlight location in Old Town. The other locations for this event were Evergreen Acres Park with event captain Susan Klein-Rothschild and Jonny D. Wallis Neighborhood Park with event captain Jerry Lucera from Waypoint Church

 The Goleta Rotary Club also partnered with the city to support this event.

“Habitat Santa Barbara partners with the city of Goleta throughout the year to identify areas where home repair projects are needed and work together to identify homeowners in need of  ‘A Brush With Kindness.’ an exterior maintenance and beautification program. When the city asked if we wanted to partner with them for the event, we were happy to take a leadership role in recruiting volunteers and providing staff leadership,” Susan Renehan, director of philanthropy and external affairs for Habitat Santa Barbara, told the News-Press. 

Mr. Rowell saw Saturday’s cleanup as successful.

“We were able to support and inspire people in Goleta to get out and take ownership over the environment in Goleta. The trash would have otherwise polluted creeks, waterways and the ocean environment. We are getting people inspired and preventing pollution from getting into the natural environment and waterways,” said Mr. Rowell. “The atmosphere is energetic and positive; it’s a great way to start the weekend by getting up early.

“We usually have coffee and we give away T-shirts and water bottles. Everyone works really hard for those two hours.”

Roger Aceves, longtime city council member who was unseated during the November election, founded Beautify Goleta in 2016

 “He goes to pretty much all of them and he’s always out there picking up trash and pulling weeds. When Roger started this, we were only doing bulky item drop-off, and volunteer clean-up events were added last year,” said Mr. Rowell. 

Mr. Aceves talked to the News-Press about Beautify Goleta.

“I founded the event years ago when it started as a small venture in Old Town. Now the staff has built the program up so we are recycling tons of material that would normally end up in the landfill,” Mr. Aceves said. “A lot of it will be recycled and repurposed. It’s a great program.”

Noted Mr. Rowelll, “The next ‘Beautify Goleta” day is scheduled for Saturday, April 22, and will be highlighting Earth Day in Stow Grove Park. We are actively looking for business partners and organizations to become ‘Beautify Goleta’ captains. It is a great way for businesses to get their name out in community,” said Mr. Rowell.  

If interested, you can email environmentalservices@cityofgoleta.org.    

For more information, see cityofgoleta.org.

email: kzehnder@newspress.com