The Anacostia Watershed Society’s Earth Day Cleanup is a DC-area tradition where thousands of volunteers cleanup sites all along the Anacostia River and its tributary streams throughout the watershed in DC, Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties. After the cleanup, all volunteers are invited to come to the big celebration where the Anacostia Watershed Society thanks and celebrates their hard work and the progress of the Anacostia River’s restoration.
Registration opens on March 2. When it does, you can choose a site from the map on the main page, register for it, then come to that location on Earth Day and make a difference for the Anacostia River! The rest of this FAQ has more details.
Yes! One of the ways we thank you for volunteering at the AWS Earth Day Cleanup is to give you a free t-shirt. We also need to plan for bags, gloves, and other supplies… plus big things like dumpsters and municipal trash support! In addition, when you register online you fill out the online waiver, which means all you have to do is check-in then get to volunteering when you come on Earth Day.
All registrants receive a confirmation email that comes from "AWS Earth Day." Please check your spam folder if you did not see it in your inbox.
Volunteers at all AWS events are required to fill out our waiver to participate. Individual Registrants can sign the online waiver as part of their registration process. A printable pdf of the waiver can be found by clicking here, and group registrants will be instructed to fill it out before arriving. Completing the waiver can take a bit of time, so in order to get you right to cleaning on April 13th, we strongly encourage volunteers using the paper waiver to fill it out prior to the event and bring it with them. Minors under the age of 18 must have a waiver signed by their parent or guardian.
Unfortunately, due to the planning involved with this event, all volunteers must pre-register or register with a group. We also won’t have those awesome shirts for you if you don’t register.
When you register to volunteer, you are asked for your t-shirt size! When you check in on the morning of Saturday, April 13th, your site leader will give you a shirt. You must register by March 25 to get an Earth Day shirt. We do our best, but cannot guarantee that we will have a shirt for you if you register after that time. Even with our careful planning, sometimes sites run out of shirts. Typically any extra come to the Celebration, so if you come to the Thank You party, we should be able to get you one then.
Yes! Please pay attention to the site information, because some sites are a little too burdensome for little hands. Sites that are not recommended for children are clearly marked on the map of volunteer sites. We trust that parents will make informed decisions about what is best for themselves and their families.
Yes! If you bring the paperwork, AWS site leaders and staff at your site will sign off on your child’s hours.
Not exactly… Children must be accompanied by a responsible adult, with a signed waiver by their parent or guardian. School Groups, scout groups, and others must be accompanied by a responsible adult. If your child is with a group, please make sure he or she meets up with their group leader.
Yes! When you get to the registration page, just put in the number of registrations that are in your group. Make sure you have the name, address, and email for the members of your group.
The Group Leader who registers the volunteers has the responsibility to distribute the AWS waiver. We strongly recommend that you print it, fill it out, and sign it prior to the event.
If you have a group larger than 10, please contact us so we can help direct you to where you will be the most help! There are only a few sites that can handle 100 or more people, and we especially want people to be at the site that means the most to them or is in their neighborhood, If you have a group of 10 or more, please contact Emily Castelli at [email protected] so we can coordinate with you directly about your group’s volunteer needs.
Corporate groups are encouraged to contact Emily Conrad at [email protected] or at 301-699-6204 x111 for more information about volunteering, and the benefits of becoming an Earth Day sponsor!
It is wonderful that so many volunteers participate in the AWS Earth Day Cleanup, and we plan to have as many people that each site needs to become cleaner. Sometimes these sites get full… but the sites that aren’t full still need you! We kindly ask that you pick your second choice site.
If the site that you want still has spots available, just re-enter your registration for the new site. Send an email to [email protected] so we can delete the registration that you don’t want.
Once you have registered, please only contact your site leader with site specific questions or concerns about location and directions. You can find your site leader contact information in the confirmation email you receive upon registering. We encourage you to have your site leader's phone number handy on the day of the event in case you need assistance finding your site that morning.