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The Cities Blog
Dan Olson

Trashy Earth Day reporting

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Show me!

I mean literally. Here we are, a gaggle of Earth Day clean up volunteers on Saturday in Minneapolis.

And in the spirit of first person journalism, I donned donated gloves to join, from right to left, Beverly Christie, Kevin Chace, Mark Zimmerman, Trudi Meloche and yours truly in the trashy adventure. This photo was snapped on my MPR-supplied company camera by an unnamed volunteer.

We'd just finished clambering through the Mill Ruins Park area downriver from this site which is now called Water Works by city officials and remembered by many of us as the late Reiki Weston's long vacant Fuji Ya restaurant.

Totals aren't in for this year's event sponsored by the city's Parks and Recreation Board. Last year, officials say more than 1,500 volunteers removed over 10,000 pounds of trash during the one-day event.

No need to detail what we found Saturday. It's a sampling of the usual flotsam and jetsam of our consumption based economy. Likely all tossed with no malice aforethought, simply discarded without any thought.

Minneapolis had 30 sites where volunteers gathered for the trash hunt.

Now, some history, one of my favorite topics with a photo from one of my favorite places.

Who is this man?

This photo courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society is from 1970, which many regard as the first year for Earth Day, and says only "man distributing leaflets, University of Minnesota," and of course, it's clear the rally is front of Coffman Union. Who is he? Were you there? Are you in the photo?