Perk Up the Parks is a weekly program that gives students an opportunity to beautify the green spaces around town.

Why does it matter?

Over 1,000,000 people pass through our city's parks every year. Keeping the parks safe and clean is one of the best things we can do to keep our local environment beautiful and encourage others to respect it.

Also, we turned it into a bit of a game, which makes it a ton of fun.

How does it relate to our mission?

• Our mission is to use technology to make the world around us more beautiful. When we Perk Up the Parks, we are taking data on where litter appears most heavily.
• When we have enough data to produce a conclusive report on disposal trends, we will propose the implementation of 50 new trash cans in parks around the city.

What will you do and learn as part of the initiative?

Join this initiative if you're interested in learning how to

• organize large groups of people
• gamify community service
• use tech and data to promote local change
• fundraise
• build local communities
• make parks beautiful

Context and lessons for the next generation

Lynne Kim brought this idea to the leadership team after taking Intro to Urban Planning, Intro to Game Design, and Environmental Studies in one semester. She suggested that our club create a competition around cleaning parks with a long-term goal of making it easier to keep the parks clean with better trash-can placement.

Lessons Learned

Don't start before 11AM or people will sleep through it.

Photos