Thanks to more than 250 first-year students from Colorado College, 4,800 pounds of litter was removed from Fountain Creek over two days as part of the City's largest Adopt-A-Waterway cleanup event since 2019. The students, who are participating in the "Priddy Project," a program designed to engage incoming students in community-focused projects, cleared trash along the creek between America the Beautiful Park downtown and Vermijo Park in Old Colorado City. The students will continue removing litter Friday further west to Rainbow Falls in Manitou Springs.
The City’s Adopt-A-Waterway Program promotes volunteerism of local businesses and organizations to maintain healthy waterways in Colorado Springs through regular waterway cleanups. The program has grown from 25 groups in 2016 to 87 in 2021. These groups, which have been inactive during the COVID-19 pandemic, conduct routine cleanups to help reduce the impacts of trash and debris that harms water quality and impacts the beauty of Colorado Springs' watersheds.
Thanks to the work of more than 3200 community volunteers in 2019 the Adopt-A-Waterway Program hosted 100 cleanup events that removed more than 70,000 pounds of litter from Colorado Springs waterways. For more information about the Adopt-A-Waterway program and how to get involved visit: www.ColoradoSprings.gov/AdoptAWaterway.