By: Catherine Daleo
Reading time: 2 ½ minutes

Despite the pandemic forcing many people to stay home more, for one local trail clean-up group, Trashy Trail Runners, it presented an opportunity to get people out on the trail and encourage them to help keep our public lands and our community beautiful. 

Trashy Trail Runners (TTR) is a local nonprofit cleanup organization with a mission to “improve the health of public lands by inspiring everyone to build a connection with the outdoors through education, cleanup, and trail adventures.”   

Co-founders of TTR, Anne Rolstad and Kim Fowler – the Executive Director and Deputy Director of the nonprofit (respectively), are both outdoor enthusiasts passionate about keeping natural spaces beautiful. Together, after a trail run, they went to get drinks at a local brewery where they discussed the increased traffic and resulting trash they’d seen at Red Rock National Conservation Area and Mt. Charleston. 

“We both have years of outdoor experience, and I’m a ‘Leave No Trace’ Master Educator, so we began thinking of ways to give back to public lands and help share outdoor ethic tips with the community,” Rolstad said. “We then quickly got to work and started building Trashy Trail Runners.”

TTR’s first event was in December of 2019, and they officially became a nonprofit in June of this year. Before the pandemic, the group was able to host four cleanups. 

“We had awesome groups of volunteers eager to get outside and clean up public lands, so it was going well,” Fowler said, adding that they had to cancel their planned events when the pandemic began. This made them rethink how they would move forward, as their mission is more than improving the health of public lands; it’s also “to connect people to the outdoors and build a supportive community.”

In response, they paused most of their in-person events and began doing virtual events instead, expanding their efforts in new ways. 

“Our first virtual event was in August, and we plan to keep it going, even after it’s safe to return to our larger monthly in-person cleanup events,” Fowler said. “We’ve found virtual events are a great way to engage volunteers all over, not just in Las Vegas.” 

At the moment, the only in-person events they’re hosting is a weekly Trail Run and Trash Cleanup that happens every Sunday afternoon. As mentioned, their efforts also cross state lines, as a volunteer leader in Colorado Springs will be leading events starting in 2021.

These small-scale, socially distanced events, limited to a max capacity of 10 people, allow both the team and their volunteers to have fun while building their community and giving back to public lands.  

“If we end up having more volunteers who want to get involved, we’re open to hosting private events as well,” Rolstad added. “In October, we hosted a private cleanup with another local nonprofit.”

To date, TTR has done 23 events, has had 138 volunteers come out for a total of 235 hours, and pulled 466 pounds of trash.

While there have been challenges arising out of the pandemic, it allowed Trashy Trail Runners the time to brainstorm new ideas and work on the administrative tasks they needed to complete to get their official nonprofit status. 

“We really miss our volunteers, though!” Fowler said. We’re looking forward to the day when we can safely gather together again and work with local agencies.”

In the meantime, the best way to support TTR is by participating in either their monthly virtual events or weekly events and by donating to their organization. The organization also awards prizes to participants of the virtual events, including stickers, shirts, and gift cards.

“Another great way to support us is to share our mission on social media platforms or offline with family and friends,” Rolstad said.

To volunteer at one of TTR’s events, visit their website at http://www.trashytrailrunners.org/.

Rolstad concluded by saying, “Although we host cleanup events, we’re also here to answer outdoor ethics questions. If anyone wants to reach out to us for advice before they head out outdoors, feel free to email us at info@trashytrailrunners.org. We’d love to connect with the community and give back to public lands together. Let’s keep nature rad!” 

Follow Trashy Trail Runners on their Facebook and Instagram to keep up to date on their upcoming events and the organization’s latest news.