We first met Dave in Duck Hollow several years ago. He showed up at a Tireless Project event there. He showed up there the next year, too. And the next. It didn't take long for us to realize that Dave had a very special love for that piece of land. Joining our DumpBusters crew this year, he spent every winter weekend (often both Saturday and Sunday) helping to remove more than 150 tons of illegally dumped debris from the area. Once one of the most heavily dumped sites in the city, Duck Hollow has been enjoying a relatively dump-free existence all year thanks to Dave's stewarding of the entire 17 acres! He visits the site 3-4 times weekly to monitor and pick up litter or any new items that appear. He also continues to regularly volunteer with us on the weekends, cleaning up other dump sites throughout the region.

Thank you, Dave, for your dedication to Duck Hollow and to the mission of Allegheny CleanWays!

Last week at the annual Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful dinner, our DumpBusters program was presented with the first ever "Clean It" award for its outstanding contribution to cleaning Pennsylvania. Some of the intrepid crew (pictured below with KPB's Executive Director, Shannon Reiter) were able to be on hand to receive the award and proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they do indeed clean up well :-)

Having started without funding and on faith that volunteers would step forward, this program blossomed as both volunteers and local residents came to recognize the good work being done by crew leader, Joe Divack, and the early crew members. In one year, the program, which now consists of 20 rotating volunteers - including several who volunteer weekly, has revolutionized our ability to clean up dumpsites and to engage local people. To date, the DumpBusters crew has clocked 1658 hours removing 55 illegal dumpsites and 283.55 tons of debris from Allegheny County.