LAFAYETTE ORGANIZATIONS TO TAKE PART IN INTERNATIONAL COASTAL CLEANUP DAY
Parish Proud and United Way of Acadiana are happy to partner with the Coastal Wetlands Planning Protection and Restoration Act, TECHE Project, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, Bayou Vermilion District, Acadiana Native Plant Project, Paddle the Gulf and Gulf of Mexico Alliance to clean up the Vermilion River for International Coastal Clean-up Day on Saturday, September 19. The coastal-wide cleanup will have site locations from New Orleans to Lafayette.
As the southern portion of the US, South Louisiana knows what it looks like when “all waterways lead to the coast.” Water doesn’t flow uphill and what our neighbors to the north put in the rivers and streams flows downward to our southern region of the state and into the Gulf of Mexico. Likewise, loose debris upstream makes its way into our watershed. This litter not only impacts appearance, more importantly, it contributes to flooding as well.
Joining Parish Proud at Lajaunie Road, United Way of Acadiana will bring their volunteer expertise to help join the fight to clean up Lafayette.
“United Way of Acadiana is encouraged by Parish Proud’s efforts to improve the visual quality of our space,” said Carlee Alm-LaBar, President/CEO. “This is just another step in our partnership to match volunteers with opportunities that better our community as a whole. United
Way of Acadiana believes we win by LIVING UNITED – by forging unlikely partnerships, finding new solutions to old problems, and mobilizing the best resources. This beautifully displays United Way’s partnership with Parish Proud to improve Acadiana through beautification efforts.”
Those who wish to volunteer can do so by signing up with Parish Proud on the Volunteer Center website. Citizens with their own litter toolkits are asked to join us and help restore this area to cleanliness. Our hope is to deter other litterers from using this area as a landfill and help save Lafayette Parish tax dollars that would otherwise be spent on litter removal.
“Unfortunately, Lajaunie Road has a history of dumping, so we regularly see bags of trash and junk piled along the roadway, it really is a detriment to what should be a scenic area,” Bess Foret, Environmental Quality Manager at Lafayette Consolidated Government said, “The continual clean-ups cost the taxpayer’s money, so we are working with other agencies to determine how to stop the dumping through education and enforcement. We’re grateful for volunteer clean-up efforts like this and excited to continue supporting Parish Proud!”