On Tuesday morning, a cleverly remixed line from the popular 'Commanders Song' could be heard among the trees of Fort DuPont Park: "This litter can't stand us. Left hand up, who are we? The Commanders!" Indeed it was a bad day to be a candy wrapper or a plastic bottle as a determined group of burgundy and gold-cladded trash collectors hit the trails.
"We're going to probably collect maybe up to a ton of trash today. We're doing that because we want to clean up this beautiful park, but we're also doing that for the good of the watershed," Chris Williams, President/CEO of the Anacostia Watershed Society, said to Commanders staff at the event's kickoff. "One of the areas we're going to clean up right here, there's a stream at the bottom of that, and that stream flows into the Anacostia River which flows into the Chesapeake…I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for being here. You're making a huge contribution today."
In collaboration with the team's official waste and recycling partner Golden Bear Environmental, members from the Washington Commanders business operation traded out their work shoes for walking shoes for an Earth Day event focused on giving back to D.C. and helping to steward an important piece of land.
Staff members, outfitted with gloves and special 'Commanders of the District' shirts, spread out in several directions to collect as much refuse as possible, with findings ranging from car parts and fast food containers to Styrofoam packaging and even clothing items. Not unlike the way the Commanders approach football, the participants were enjoying the time together while focusing on the impactful task at hand.
"I think it's really nice to be to get out as a full staff for the first time since the season ended and just kind of see faces from all different areas of our business," Darius Smith, senior director of game presentation. "Knowing how busy it is with Draft and players reporting, it just shows how important the community really is for us and how we're able to prioritize and take the time to give back to a really important initiative on Earth Day in D.C. It's just been a really great opportunity to disconnect from work and do something for a bigger cause."
Participants sifted through leaves and along the sides of the roads with two bags: black for general waste, plastic for recyclable. The latter, Williams explained, would help the Anacostia Watershed Society's push to pass a 'bottle bill' that's in the works.
"We're putting the recyclables – plastic bottles, aluminum cans, glass jars – into these plastic bags, because we want to take a picture at the end and show how many bottles and cans get into the system," he said. "We're advocating in D.C. and Maryland for a bottle bill which will put in place a system to incentivize recycling to keep that stuff out of the stream. Because as much as we love these cleanups, we'd love to make them obsolete by getting to the point where all that trash is going to where it's supposed to go, much of it to recycling."
Getting the trash to where it's supposed to go is where Golden Bear stepped up on the day. The post-cleanup haul was collected by Golden Bear trucks to be taken to one of their local waste facilities, a linkup that represents the collaboration between Golden Bear and the Commanders at its finest.
"Days like today, it's fun we get to come outside, but we get to make a difference. It's those days where we get to have fun and make impact that true synergies between the relationship are happening," Golden Bear CEO David Chakola said. "It's just been an excellent partnership."
The full-staff cleanup demonstrated once again the Commanders commitment to investing in and taking care of the district. And D.C., as it always does, no matter whether it's a gameday, a youth event or just a Tuesday, gave to the Commanders all of its beauty.
"I had so much fun today. Getting to hang out with everyone from outside the office was a blast. We got to enjoy a beautiful park. We got to hike a little bit, and we got to make an impact in the community," Lucia Mitnik, group sales account executive, said.
