Let’s Do This.

A Cleaner Alki is a community cleanup group that grew out of a long-running Saturday morning beach cleanup between brothers and fourth generation West Seattleites, Erik and Garet Bell.

In the first year of the Pandemic Erik found himself anxious and depressed for the first time in his life, literally not knowing what to do with himself most mornings. A toxic political climate, the pandemic, financial insecurity and three kids in college were not adding up to a sense of serenity. An hour cleaning up along Alki however was often the remedy for getting the day moving and his mind reset.

After several months of these daily therapy cleans Erik posted an open invitation on a local Facebook group, West Seattle Connection, inviting neighbors to join him at the beach the following morning for a cleanup after a messy Memorial Day party.

Moved by the community’s response, he followed up with a manifesto of sorts the following day describing how the cleanups were helping him through the pandemic, and asked if this resonated with others, would they be interested in creating a cleanup community in West Seattle? An outpouring of support helped springboard the launch of A Cleaner Alki (By and By) on July 2, 2021.

In the years that have followed, the group has grown to over 2,000 members and has taken their mission off the beach and out into the community to address the many complicated cleanup needs around the region.

Members can choose between group cleanup events at the beach, parks, residential neighborhoods, schools, business junctions, highway cleanups, industrial areas, abandoned encampments and illegal dumping grounds. Within these areas we focus on litter as well as Sprucing cleanups which work on alleviating overgrown infrastructure in the community. We also deploy self-led Block Drop stations along the beach and throughout the community for independent helpers.

The group has partnered with Seattle Parks Foundation as our fiscal sponsor so we are able to go after grants and receive tax-deductible donations under their 501 (c)(3) nonprofit status. We have also partnered with Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), Seattle Parks & Rec and Green Seattle Partnership Forest Stewards on our Wednesday, Thursday and Friday cleanups respectively. We also just completed our pilot year of facilitating the All Hands Cleanup series for Seattle Public Utilities’ Adopt A Street program which held 10 citywide cleanups in five different Seattle neighborhoods.

We offer weekly opportunities to help create cleaner, safer and more welcoming spaces—and a culture of environmental stewardship in the Pacific Northwest. Building community through purposeful action and fellowship. Come join us! Alki (By and By)

 
 

Thank You

To our Partners & Affiliates in the cleanup community!