By Karen Gleason
Popular areas around Lake Amistad got a thorough spring-cleaning Saturday when some 200 volunteers organized by radio station KDLK 94.1 picked up tons of trash, tires and other debris.
“We filled up six dumpsters in total with trash found at Amistad, but we couldn’t have done it without all our sponsors, the National Park Service and our hard-working volunteers,” KDLK radio personality Courtney Capitan said after the event.
Capitan, one of the principal organizers of the event, said the idea for a volunteer trash pickup day arose when she and Debbie Daigle, owner of Debbie’s Dog Grooming, met at the radio station one day and began talking about how much they both loved Lake Amistad.
“We also started talking about how, when we go out there sometimes, there’s just so much trash everywhere, and how disappointing that is, because it’s such a beautiful place,” Capitan said.
She said she told Daigle that sometimes when she visits the lake, she picks up trash in the area where she is visiting.
“So we talked some more, and the idea just kind of spiraled from there,” Capitan said.
Capitan said they pitched the idea to fellow radio personality Jay Gonzalez, her co-host on KDLK’s show “The Drive,” which airs Monday through Friday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
As the idea began to gel, Capitan said she and Gonzalez began talking on about it on-air, and Gonzalez began to mention it on the station’s popular “Morning Show.”
“We also posted it on our Facebook page, and I began coordinating with the National Park Service, because I wanted to make sure it was okay with them. They had a lot of rules, but we did it and got the go-ahead and began collecting donations for some of the things we would need, like water, gloves and trash bags,” Capitan said.
Event sponsors included Amistad Bank, Rudy’s, Sonic, Fragola’s Catering, Chick-fil-A, Lopez Roofing Co., Silver Eagle Distributors, Pacifico, the Home Depot, Napa Auto Parts, Brown Nissan, Chuckie’s Beef Jerky, Roberts Jewelers and the Devil’s River Beer Barn.
The trash pickup was held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and volunteers focused their efforts on hotspots at the lake like Spur 454, Governor’s Landing and Diablo East.
Capitan said she and the radio station hope to make the event an annual one.
“I’m already ready to plan it for next year. We got so much support from the community, and every bag of trash picked up makes the park more beautiful for all of us,” she said.
