Clean Teams!

For the past 12 years, the Good Sam Club has held a National Cleanup Day to remove litter from our public roads and lands.  Hundreds of Good Sam members and local chapters take part, cleaning up tons of litter each year.

This year, we chose the weekend of September 6-7, a week after Labor Day weekend, for our cleanup efforts, with the hope that we could make a difference in cleaning up public lands as the traditional camping season comes to a close.

We also partner with the Take Pride in America program on our Cleanup Day events.  Take Pride in America is a U.S. Department of Interior initiative that aims to seek, support and recognize volunteers who work to improve our public lands, including our parks, forests, grasslands and wildlife refuges, as well as our cultural and historic sites, local playgrounds and recreation areas.  Volunteers can simply log on to their website, www.takepride.gov, and record their volunteer hours on any of the Take Pride projects.  After working 500 hours, volunteers earn an America the Beautiful Volunteer Pass, which allows free access to participating federal lands, including our National Parks.

Employees at Affinity, the Good Sam Club’s parent company here in Ventura, have also participated in the Club’s Cleanup Day, and this year was no exception.  39 of us spent our lunch hour last week picking up trash at San Buenaventura State Beach, which located right across the freeway from our offices.  Although it’s a bit back breaking, the day is a great opportunity to spend an hour at the beach picking up all kinds of litter, from cigarette butts (lots!) to the occasional kid’s toy and candy wrappers.  It’s a great way to build teamwork amongst our employees, and hopefully make “our” beach more enjoyable for countless beach going families, not to mention preventing litter from going out to the ocean.

Our hope is that, in one way or another, every Good Sam member will participate.  Cleaning up the country is a BIG job – we’d like everyone to join us.

And thank you, Good Sam volunteers!