Joburg City Clean Up was a huge success

Joburg City Clean Up was a huge success

This past weekend CN&Co together with Petco and Extrupet hosted the Joburg City Clean up at Newtown Park in Joburg CBD.

This is a space that has so much history, culture and potential but neglect and littering defaced it. The once vibrant place is now seen as dangerous and dirty, and it has now become unaccessible to joburgers.

The Joburg City Clean up ignited hope within me once again; it reminded me to never judge a book by its cover, to give people a chance and that our actions today will determine the future.

Some highlights.

Here’s a bit of a testimony.
This is a picture of a homeless gentleman that lives in the park, he approached me while we were setting up, he wanted to know what we were doing and before I could explain he apologised for the way the park was littered and the passed out drunk man on the lawn.
I explained that we have come to help clean the city, he was intrigued and asked loads of questions. Before I knew it we were talking about the life cycle of a bottle, how it decomposes, how recycling works and why it’s important to keep our environment clean. It was almost like something happened clicked, his eyes opened wide and he ran off collecting all his homeless friends. He told them that litter is making them sick and they all wanted to help clean up. It was humbling to see people from all walks of life joining hands and cleaning our city.

You could feel the energy and feeling of pride amongst the local residence as they filled bags of rubbish.

These clean ups brake down barriers of wealth, religion, race and backgrounds, these clean ups unite people.

Making friends, creating memories and having fun.

CN&CO clients EuropAssistance brought family and friends to join in the fun.

The Joburg City Clean Up was driven by FNB and Joburg10k, they wanted to host a clean up the week before the Joburg10k run. This was an effort to bring the running community and locals together to clean our city so as to give visitors a better experience while visiting the city.

I am always humbled to have friends join me, it was amazing sharing the day with Kim & Manfred Gallus, Tracy Lee Feakes, Dean Brons, Jenna Daghaye and Byron Ascott-Evans.

It was an honor to have these two legends take time out of their training and fundraising to join the clean up. They will be running from Pretoria to Cape Town to raise money for the MAD Foundation, I’m a big fan of MAD Foundation and a big fan of these two gentlemen, Joshua Nuttal (Purple Group) and Allan Bader (CN&CO). #MAD2Run

We were joined by Mr Gay SA, who brought loads of laughs and energy. I was honored to host a workshop with these change makers about what it takes to make a difference and leave a legacy.

We collected over 150 bags of litter that Wasteplan will sort and recycle.

These clean ups are about more than cleaning our city. They are about bringing people together, taking ownership of our environment and being proud of our community. These clean ups educate people and lead to changing behaviour that will leave our cities cleaner and safer.

I challenge you to doing a clean up in your community. Be the change you want to see.

 

We off to Durban next.