Kristen Schick, coastal cleanup intern for environmental nonprofit Save the Sound, collecting trash during Sunday morning's cleanup at Criscuolo Park.
Hub cap. Fish skull. Brand new bucket hat. Bike chain. An entire picnic setup. And so, so many metal bottle caps.
These were among the items included in 200 pounds of trash collected by volunteers at Criscuolo Park on Sunday morning.
Swords to Plow Shares led volunteers through the process of converting unwanted guns into new items such as garden tools and jewelry.
Rev. Justin Crisp identifying trash material for data collection. Crisp works at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in New Canaan and is a Yale Divinity School alum.
The cleanup in Fair Haven was one of seven projects going on across the city as part of this year’s “Serve, Pray, Heal Interfaith Service Day,” organized by nonprofit IWagePeace, with the goal of uniting “Jewish, Muslim, and Christian youth from Israel for a day of community service.”
The first iteration of this event took place in 2019. This year, the nonprofit partnered with the Jerusalem Peacebuilders, which has brought a group of 16 teenagers — mostly from Palestine and Texas — to New Haven for a two-week service trip.
Seventeen faith organizations from around the state participated in the event, as well as dozens of unaffiliated individuals and families simply looking for a day of giving back. Click here to read a full list of participating religious institutions.
Volunteers convened downtown on the Green at 8:30 a.m. before bussing off to the various project sites. That offered opportunities to make sandwiches at a soup kitchen, assist with affordable home construction, repurpose unwanted guns, restore a Jewish cemetery, and paint a peace mural.
Environmental nonprofit Save the Sound led the cleanup charge at Criscuolo Park, where volunteers collected the hundreds of pounds of trash. Coastal Cleanup intern Kristen Schick said that Sunday’s event was also the kickoff of a series of similar cleanup events around the state organized by Save the Sound this fall, which you can sign up for here.
After dedicating several hours at the various sites, volunteers returned on buses to the Green for free pizza, live music, and an interfaith religious service.
Beatrice Cramer getting suited up for trash collection.
Ken Wingood made his way out to the waterfront, where he said he found the trash to be densest.
These women spent about an hour collecting bottles and cigarette butts from the areas surrounding the playground.
Some of the teens who are staying in New Haven as part of a service program called the Jerusalem Peacemakers.
IWagePeace founder Bruce Barrett.
Shiva Suttle and her 5-year-old daughter Laina Byron, who saw the event going on from their apartment window and came down to participate.
The mural midprocess.