Caring For Alaska Floods Anchorage Creek Cleanup With Support

Caring For Alaska Floods Anchorage Creek Cleanup With Support

Floatilla volunteers prepare to clean Westchester Lagoon.
2022 Q3

On a sunny day in late May, volunteers in bright yellow safety vests paddled around Anchorage, removing trash from local waterways. The vests were provided by Caring for Alaska, Matson's local community environmental stewardship program, as part of its support for the Anchorage Waterways Council.

Launched in 2021, the Caring for Alaska program partners with Alaska nonprofits to beautify and protect the natural environment. These organizations, like the Anchorage Waterways Council, receive grants to arrange and carry out cleanup, rehabilitation, and infrastructure improvement projects in Anchorage, Kodiak Island, and Unalaska in the Aleutian Chain.

“The Caring for Alaska program supports organizations that believe in Matson's mission to protect the environment where we live and work,” said Dylan Faber, manager, community affairs, Alaska. “The Anchorage Waterways Council is doing just that, through its nearly 40-year effort to protect water quality throughout the city.”

Since 1984, hundreds of volunteers annually spread out across the city to remove trash and create healthier watershed environments.

“Rain comes down and washes everything on the ground – trash, cigarette butts, all that – into our creeks,” said Cherie Northon, Executive Director of the Anchorage Waterways Council.

In addition to volunteers, cleaning up the creeks takes a lot of supplies – things like trash bags, gloves, and hand wipes. The Council relies on donations from businesses and individuals to purchase these supplies. Caring for Alaska has helped those supplies go even further over the past year.

This year, the Council is receiving $10,000 through Caring for Alaska.

“For us, it’s huge,” she said, adding that the funding creates stability for the organization’s creek cleanups and allows staff to broaden their reach.

Volunteers pulled thousands of pounds of debris from lakes and waterbodies throughout the Anchorage area.