Trash Extravaganza - 10/31/25

On Halloween, October 31st , we gathered for a spooky, surprisingly dry, and delightfully spirited Trash Extravaganza under the Oregon City boardwalk and beyond! What started as a focused cleanup near the east end quickly turned into a much bigger adventure when we discovered that some wonderful folks had already tackled part of the job, so our crew expanded the mission!

We split into four small teams, covering zones all across downtown Oregon City: the transit center, downtown blocks, Abernathy Creek, the train trestle, the boardwalk, and even the hard-to-reach areas beneath it. No trash pile was safe from our crew of seasoned cleanup champions!

Nine participants with lived experience joined the team this round, each earning a $100 gift card for their three hours of much-appreciated hard work. And because no Halloween cleanup would be complete without treats, we celebrated afterward with pizza, Voodoo Doughnuts, and an impressive amount of candy.

A big thank-you goes out to our incredible community partner Mark from Solve, whose faithful help keeps these cleanups running smoothly; the amazing Valerie from 4D Recovery, who lent a hand throughout the event; and Kate Taylor from Clackamas County, who worked behind the scenes to help coordinate logistics. We’re also grateful to Ryan Kersey for blocking off the area so our team could work safely, and to B&B Leasing for providing the dropbox. We know it makes for a long day for whoever is the driver, and we truly appreciate it!

We’ll be back for more community care, in the form of trash wrangling, in November! Thank you for continuing to show up, partner, and believe in this work!!