CELEBRATION & Game Night

Free drinks, free food, party games and laughter with great people, tons of free parking, and the celebration of an amazing achievement

The games:
Bring your favorite party game (or come without one--there will be plenty to choose from) . There will also be corn hole and ping pong.

The celebration:
We will also be celebrating a milestone six years in the making.

I (Gus) have filled and logged 9,999 large bags with litter collected from Raleigh roads, and woods (including a lot of homeless encampments) . I will be finishing the ten thousandth one at this event

What started as a spontaneous onetime (i thought ) action turned into an obsessive hobby, an almost daily practice, one that i did through bitter cold, brutal heat, and even three major surgeries (screws and/or plates in shoulder, neck, and back). There were days I wasn’t sure I’d make it to ten thousand, but I kept picking anyway.

Reaching this goal fills me with a great feeling of achievement. I want to share that joy with friends and trash picking colleagues who i've had the pleasure to work with.

Please join me for a celebration.
I’ll be providing hors d’oeuvres and an open bar. We’ll mark the occasion with a ceremonial filling of the 10,000th bag. And since i love corn hole, there'll also be a competition to see if anyone can knock me off the throne, as well as a choice of party games. Feel free to bring your own favorite game.

Some perspective on the last 6 years. Here’s what those 10,000 bags represent:

• Roughly 10,000 NCDOT 35‑gallon bags (including “bag equivalents,” like counting a large tire as 1 bag or a couch as 3)
• At an estimated 15 lbs per bag, that’s about 150,000 lbs of litter removed (75 tons)
• about 4,400 hours spent
• 6 guns found (turned in to Police)
• Around 50,000 aluminum cans recycled (see pic)
• Over a hundred loads of found clothing and blankets washed and donated to thrift stores or directly to people in need (see pic)
• About 10 pickup‑truck loads of still‑usable items rescued and given away at my block’s “free” corner.(see pic)
• ?? flat tires prevented (picked up many hundreds nails, screws and other sharp things. I'm sure at least some of them would've punctured a tire)
• ?? car accidents prevented ( i also keep storm drains cleared, preventing water from puddling on roads and cars from sliding on water or ice)
• ?? tons kept out of the ocean (storm drains -> creeks -> rivers -> ocean)
• ?? marine animals saved
• PICKED UP: 25 billion plastic bags, 60 billion bottle caps, 50 billion straws, 100 gazillion pieces of styrofoam (OK, I admit these numbers might be slightly exaggerated. But it FELT like that many 🤪)