7 Keys for a Successful Cleanup Project
1) be willing to do the activity alone, and enjoy it
2) make the time, place and duration explicitly clear to everyone you tell about it
3) INVITE people. Don’t coerce, try to sell it to them, or overly control their participation. When invited, most people will bring something to the clean up effort that really makes really work.
4) keep it simple. Cleaning up trash is easy. All you need are garbage bags, places to put the trash, and gloves (rakes and shovels can’t hurt either!) Tell potential participants that these are the raw materials, but bring enough yourself to cover half-a-dozen people who come without .
5) have fun doing it. After all, you and everyone else will be actively making the world a better place… really. MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE! (this is what inspires me, and probably you, and probably most people who do things like this).
6) tell lots of people, including the press. Just call them up and tell them what, when, where you are doing what you are doing. Even if you wind up alone out there, you will still peak interest, and people may want to join you next time. Please feel free to use “www.LitterProject.com” as a resource/organizing principal. And feel free to forward chunks of the press release to any news organizations you contact (having something written that can be “cut and pasted” can increase likelihood of publication)
finally–and probably most important–
7) remind people and yourself that what you are doing matters by telling incidents and specifics about how it matters to you. Just the simple truth will inspire others. You can talk about what you have done to date, and the people you met along the way. The happy callouses… You can even say how you were online and found this idea, and decided to be a Promotor of the LitterProject, or talk about your own cause.
Once people experience their own daily ability to make a difference, they will probably keep it up on their own—and maybe do even do a project in their neck of the woods…
Oh yes, and if it is easy enough for you, bring some food treats for other participants as a surprise. Maybe cookies or little chocolates or something– cheap and easy is my motto on this. You can always go for coffee afterward if that works better too…
I hope this information is enough for you to move forward, because frankly, this idea needs people like you to make it work.
Best wishes in your LitterProject, and thank you for all you do!