Skip to content

Two-day Earth Day celebration Brightens Up Providence

Earth Day is the world’s largest civic observance. Like WaterFire, Earth Day brings people out into their communities and reminds us to appreciate the place in which we live.

On Earth Day, WaterFire and our season sponsor and neighbor IGT teamed up to get a kick start on spring cleaning in downtown Providence. A group of IGT employees volunteered to clean up Waterplace and Memorial Parks lead by WaterFire’s Associate Volunteer Coordinator, Chantal Roche, the team beautified the parks prepping them for a great season. Thank you!!!

Saturday's River and Valley Street Cleaning
Earth Day, photos by Samuel Bent-Ellis, Jen Bonin, and Suzanne Burns.

On Saturday, as part of WaterFire’s 5th Annual Earth Day Clean Up, two great groups of volunteers joined WaterFire on the river and on Valley Street at the WaterFire Arts Center to continue the clean-up efforts. “The rivers are an essential part of Providence, and we want to leave them better than we found them,” explains Gary St. Laurent, Volunteer Coordinator at WaterFire Providence. The river crew impressively cleared debris from underneath the docks and along the river bottom from wood boats and volunteers in the shallow basin in waders! The Valley Street crew took to the neighborhood by picking up trash, painting over graffiti, and clearing a ton of debris really taking steps towards the transformation of the WaterFire Arts Center. Both groups nearly filled two 30 yard dumpsters with trash, tires, natural debris, and other found items like a car dashboard!

Together with Mayor Jorge Elorza, the Partnership for Providence Parks, Serve RI and so many community groups and volunteers cleanups, tree plantings, and environmental education events took place at 30+ parks in neighborhoods across Providence.

A special thank you goes to the WaterFire and IGT volunteers, Bruno United Soccer players and their families, The Home Depot in Providence and Coventry, Providence Parks, and the RI Department of Environmental Management for their support and hard work.

And remember YOU can celebrate Earth Day Every Day. Enjoy this little graphic our team put together as a reminder to always be conscious of our environment and reduce, reuse and recycle!

Earth Day EVERY DAY Graphic

About the author

+ posts by author

Over the last 10+ years, alongside some incredible co-workers and volunteers, I've worked to build the organization that WaterFire Providence is today. As Director of Creative Services, my team and I work on visual communications, graphic design, the visitor experience, merchandising as well as project management for programming at the WaterFire Arts Center. Being a part of the 'Rhode Island' experience for tens of thousands of people is incredible and I have an intense pride in place for both Downtown Providence and the Valley neighborhood.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *