Job Overview

The main responsibility here is to try and recruit certified / trained first aiders. This involves a lot of pre-recruiting by contacting local EMT’s, visiting nurse associations, hospitals. Don’t bother with the Red Cross – they no longer provide first aid assistance for events.

You want to have at least one first aider per team with a first aid kit.

You also want a “head” coordinator at your base of operations to work with coordinating the first aiders out in the field and keeping in contact with them.

You also work with the administration coordinator to make sure that all the volunteers get basic medical forms to fill out. These are important to have in case of an emergency – it gives the EMT or Nurse back at headquarters information about allergies, present medical conditions, etc.

All volunteers must be given bracelets to wear. These bracelets have a number written on them which corresponds to a similar write on their medical forms.

Medical forms are not put in alphabetical order but in numerical order – this makes them easier to pull out in case of an emergency.

• The Basics

  • You need to establish protocols

  • Both for First Aid and Safety Procedures

    • These must be written out and given to all key clean-up leadership volunteers

    • All volunteers on water teams must be able to swim and wear PFD’s

• First Aid

  • Recruit Volunteers With First Aid Training

  • Each land team needs to have a First Aider

    • Either

      • Red Cross Or Wilderness First Aid Certified

      • Or EMT’s or Nurses

  • Each team also needs a fully stocked first aid kit

    • Which should be checked the two weeks before and on the day of the event

• Health & Safety Forms For All Volunteers

  • All the volunteers must fill these out and have them on file

    • Basic Medical Health Form

    • Liability Waiver

• Two Weeks Before The Project

  • Through both a letter and by telephone

    • Notify Local Hospitals About Project

    • Notify Surrounding Municipalities

    • Notify Surrounding Police and Fire Departments

• Communications

• This is an important safety tool

• How are the teams going to communicate with one another and headquarters

  • You have two options

    • Option One - With Two Way Radios – with at least a 5 mile radius

      • Make sure each team gets extra batteries

    • Option Two - Cell Phones

      • You need to check the project area ahead of time to identify cell phone dead spots.

      • Make sure all cell phones are fully charged

Health & Sanitation Coordinator

Job Overview

Volunteers need to have bathroom and clean-up facilities. Working with the committee you need to determine what is and isn’t available to you and the volunteers.

If no sanitation facilities are nearby, you need to arrange for portable toilets.

The earlier you start looking around for someone to supply porto-potties the better.

You might be able to get them donated or at a reduced price

Volunteers will also need to be able to wash their hands, especially if refreshments are provided, so look for running water or plan to provide hand sanitizer.

• What is the plan for personal sanitation going to be?

  • Wash-up Area

    • Do you need to designate a special area for volunteers

    • Are you using fresh water

    • How will you get it and store it at the main meeting site

    • Are you using hand sanitizer

  • Porto Potties

    • What bathroom facilities are available along the clean-up route

    • Are you going to need to get porto potties

    • How many are you going to need ?

    • Where are they going to be placed ?

• If there is going to be a cost involved let the Finance and Fundraising Committee know

Publicity Coordinator

Job Overview

Good and early publicity is the best way to attract volunteers and reinforce the idea that everyone can do something to help—from donating supplies and equipment to contributing money or physical labor. Throughout your preparations, communication is key. Choosing a theme or slogan for your event can evoke community pride and spirit and provide focus. Because cleanup events are usually repeated annually, a continuing theme provides long¬ term name recognition.

• Publicize The Event

  • Advertising The Event – In The Media

    • Work with your local newspaper, television, and radio stations to help get the message out.

      • You can send out a radio PSA along with media alerts.

      • See sample media alert and PSA’s

    • If people are going to help, they have to know what’s going on and what they’re expected to do.

    • Provide a phone number or email address people can call / contact for information.

    • Urge residents to get in the spirit of things and clean up their own property and/or businesses even if they’re not volunteering for community cleanup assignments.

    • As the cleanup event approaches, publicize times and locations for trash pickups. Have a backup plan in case the weather doesn’t cooperate on the day of the cleanup.

  • Advertising The Event – Flyers and Handouts

    • When you publicize the event, tell participants what to wear and what to bring – print the list on the back of an informational handout / flyer.

  • Advertising The Event – Newsletters and Bulletins

    • Don’t forget newsletters, church bulletins, and schools.

    • Many civic organizations have newsletters and welcome speakers at their meetings.

  • Advertising The Event – Promotional Posters

    • These should be put up in key areas.

    • Displaying posters and other printed materials in busy locations is also a good way to reach and inform the public.

  • Advertising The Event – Partnering Up

    • Partner up with other outdoor sport retailers and ask them to help promote the event in their stores by hanging up a poster or putting out flyers for their customers to take.

Food And Water Coordinator

Job Overview

This is an important part of the clean-up – setting up food and water for the volunteers. Before doing any major planning in this area – you need to get a rough idea of how many volunteers you can expect. If a clean-up project had been done on the river before then contact those who coordinated the project to see what their turn out was. Add another 20% onto this number and use that to estimate how many you are going to need to feed and supply with water.

• Pulling It Together

  • There are several ways to do this. Have local restaurants supply food, have local business pick up the bill or make a monetary donation towards the food.

  • The cost to feed a volunteer lunch will be about 5$ per volunteer.

  • This should include a sandwich, snack, and beverage.

    • Beverages

      • Beverage distributors may donate one can of soda per volunteer if asked.

      • You also need to have water on hand.

      • Even though volunteers bring an initial two liter supply you must have a way for them to replenish it.

      • Contact local water suppliers – they may donate water

    • Food

      • Restaurants or grocery stores may donate food.

      • This needs to be done at least three to four months in advance

      • All of these places get asked to make a donation several times a week

      • If you can determine what you are serving and what you need ahead of time you can

      • Ask for smaller food requests from several grocery stores and restaurants

      • Or determine what the total cost would be and approach local businesses for $10 or $20 donations

  • Make sure the Finance – Fundraising Committee is made aware of any costs

• Other Things To Factor In – Non Food Stuff

  • Plates

  • Napkins

  • Utensils

  • Cups

  • Trash Bags

  • These most also be factored in – if not donated – a cost projection must be given to Finance – Fundraising Committee

Transportation and Traffic Coordinator

Job Overview

Make sure you have adequate parking for volunteers

Arrange with police department any needed traffic detours or other assistance at work sites. If your proposed cleanup area is not easily accessible or you have several widely scattered sites, consider providing transportation. Have a central meeting location for volunteers and arrange a shuttle system to transport crews to their designated sites.

• What Needs To Be Done

  • Parking

    • Recruit someone to handle traffic control

      • Contact your local police department for a possible volunteer

      • If there is a cost make sure it gets put into the event budget

    • Is there adequate parking at the main area launching area o the clean-up

      • Do you need to find an alternate spot

      • Try to find a large parking area – which will not charge the volunteers to park

      • Make sure the volunteers carpool if possible

    • Do you need to set up transportation to and from the alternate parking area

  • Transportation

    • Do you need to transport volunteers to and from alternate parking area

    • Do you need to transport volunteers to and from various points along the clean-up area

    • How long will you need the bus for ( how many hours? )

      • Contact local bus companies

      • Will they donate services

      • What would the cost be for the bus

    • Cost information must be passed along to Finance  - Fundraising Committee

Trash Removal Coordinator

Job Overview

Arrange For Trash Disposal And Recycling

Contact appropriate government officials to arrange litter pickups by sanitation trucks. This is normally coordinated out of your local solid waste department. You may also want to arrange special pickup services for heavy items like stoves, furniture, and refrigerators (this can be determined after a pre-clean-up walk of the area is done).

If you cannot arrange for a special pick up, locate a permitted sanitary landfill for disposal of the collected waste. Get necessary approval to use municipal or county waste disposal facilities. Special approval is often required if private vehicles are used to transport trash. If there’s a dumping fee, seek a waiver. If the sanitation department can’t work in a particular area, plan alternative assistance.

Select an area near the cleanup site for separation of recyclable items for which there is a market, such as glass, aluminum, plastics, and tin. Recycling will decrease the amount of waste going to the landfill and may help defray the expenses of the cleanup. Be familiar with what recyclable materials your local recycling center or “drop-off” sites will accept and how they want the materials prepared. For example, will they accept broken glass? Do caps need to be removed from plastic containers? Will they accept aluminum cans that are filled with mud? Some recyclers prefer clean items, while others don’t have requirements.

You need to make arrangements for transporting recyclable materials to the nearest available recycler if your community does not have a recycling center or “drop-off” site. Money raised through recycling can help cover cleanup costs, be donated to local charities or schools, or used as “seed” money for future cleanups. 

Used automobile tires are a common problem in cleanup projects. It is illegal to dispose of whole tires in city and county landfills, though many landfills do collect them for later recycling. Check with your local sanitation department for regulations regarding tire disposal, or contact a local tire dealer to see if they would be willing to take tires. Also what kind of tires will they take and not take.

Also check with your local wetlands commission – some want you to leave buried tires in the river because they really cause no pollution and some have become small environments fish have established residence it.

In your cleanup, you may encounter large objects such as junked cars, sheet metal, or wooden loading pallets. It is tempting to remove them, but this should not be done without careful consideration and observation. Does it look like the material has been there for a long time? Is it embedded in the river bank at all? Ugly as this type of litter is, it may be doing more good than harm. The number one problem in waterways is erosion of river banks leading to muddy water and sedimentation or “silting-in” of riverbeds. Heavy objects on the bank can help prevent erosion by slowing the flow of water and protecting the bare soil from being washed away. If you have helpful but unattractive litter at your site, contact your local wetlands commission, they can come out and inspect the site and help you choose an appropriate method of dealing with the problem.

• The Basics

  • Dumpster

    • What Size ?

    • How Many Do You Need ?

    • Locations Where They Are To Placed Along The Clean-Up Route

    • Will it be donated or is there a cost

    • If there is a cost let the finance – fundraising committee know

  • Trash Drop Off / Collection Points

    • Where along the river route will trash be placed for pickup by the volunteers

    • Use bike flags the day before the event to mark trash drop off and dumpster locations along the route

  • Trash Dumpsters And Trash Transportation

    • Trash Pickup Vehicles

      • You need to recruit volunteers with pick-up trucks who are willing to transport trash from drop off points to the trash dumpsters and tires to the designated tire collection dumpster

    • Trash Bags

      • You are going to need at least twenty trash bags per volunteer

      • How To Get Them

      • Donation

      • You can get a hardware store, Home Depot, Lowes , and other businesses to donate them

      • The Keep America Beautiful campaign supplies free bags – but you need to contact them in the fall to put in a proposal

      • If there is a cost let the Finance – Fundraising Committee know

Finances and Fundraising Coordinator

Job Overview

Community campaigns cost money, so line up adequate support early. As a minimum, you need trash bags, gloves, and water for participants. Consider having hand cleanser available. Depending on your location, you may want to offer volunteers safety vests. Get at least a rough estimate early of what you’ll need in the way of promotional materials, rental or purchase of special equipment and supplies.

Contact business people, club leaders, and government officials. Ask them to give what they can: cash, equipment, supplies, or services. When approaching potential donors, use the River Clean-up template sponsorship request letter as a guideline. Depending on the size and nature of your cleanup, you might need buses to move volunteers to work sites and take them back to a central point or maybe even take them home afterwards. A print shop might contribute special letterheads and envelopes. Trash bags are a must and can often be obtained as “in-kind” donations from grocery or supply companies. Trucks to haul the waste to the landfill and recycling center will be needed. Often times the county or city municipality will offer a local waste hauler to help remove debris. Food and drinks for the workers are essential and can usually be obtained through donations. Restaurants and local grocery stores might give you refreshments. And don’t forget first aid. The local fire department or other emergency medical personnel may be willing to donate first aid kits and supplies, or they may even be interested in volunteering to serve as trained first aid administrators during the cleanup.

• What Needs To Be Done

  • A Work with other committees to develop a budget

  • Items which should be considered / looked at are:

    • Food

    • Water

    • First Aid Supplies

    • Transportation

    • Trash Removal Fees

    • Traffic Control

    • Printing Costs

• Coordinating Donation Efforts

  • Make sure that you are coordinating all money gathering efforts so that specific businesses are targeted fro specific donation request and that they are only approached once

  • When asking for donations see if you can partner up with one of the outside organizations working with you. Businesses are more likely to make a contribution to a local kayaking club or outdoor group than to another business.

• Thanking Donors

  • Make sure you immediately send out a thank you as soon as you get a donation – make sure you have the correct contact name and address of the business

  • After the event make sure you send out a certificate of appreciation along with another thank you letter which includes a recap of how much trash was collected and how many volunteers turned out

  • If possible invite the business down with a banner to have pictures taken with the volunteers