BY VINAYA SAKSENA

PAWTUCKET — The Blackstone Valley Tourism Council announced a joint effort with several community groups and businesses to improve the appearance of the Valley the old-fashioned way: By sheer volunteer manpower and commitment.

At the Visitors Center in Pawtucket on Wednesday afternoon, the council, along with its environmental education program Keep Blackstone Valley Beautiful and the national nonprofit Keep America Beautiful, allowed participating organizations to pick up cleanup kits for the effort.
These kits included trash bags, gloves and promotional items for the event: posters, banners and a handful of T-shirts. Blackstone Valley Tourism Council President Robert Billington gave a short pep talk on the importance of keeping the valley as pristine as possible, half-jokingly referencing a state police effort that began earlier this week to fish cars out of the water at the School Street pier site.
“The Blackstone has been a great place for tires to hide,” Billington said to laughter from the volunteers present. “And we found out yesterday that it’s been a great place for cars to hide.”
Despite littering and other forms of pollution that had taken place in the area, however, Billington said the Blackstone Valley remained a special place.
He added that the valley had faired better than it might have been expected to in this regard, given the numerous mills and factories that have been present throughout the area over the course of its history.
“Even though it’s a place of industry, it’s still a clean place,” he said.
Wednesday’s event served as a local kick-off for the nationwide effort known as the Great American Cleanup. Put on by Keep America Beautiful, the effort takes place annually between March 1 and May 31. According to information released by the organization, last year’s event roughly 2.8 million participants donate over 7.7 million hours to clean up 17,000 communities throughout the United States and elsewhere.
As part of the Great American Cleanup, litter cleanups are scheduled to take place in Burrillville, Cumberland, Lincoln and Smithfield on Saturday, April 19. Pawtucket and Central Falls are scheduled to have similar events on April 26. Other events have also been scheduled, including an e-waste (electronics) collection in Lincoln on April 19 and a tire roundup in Smithfield on May 17.
Details of these and other cleanup events can be found online at: www.keepblackstonevalleybeautiful..com. Those seeking more information can also contact Kristin Zawistowski at (401) 724-2200 or email her at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .