CLEARLAKE— On Thursday at the weekly Judge's Breakfast guest speaker Akriti Wong from Citizens Caring for Clearlake and POP Yoga Studio in Clearlake discussed some of the programs the two organizations have worked together to establish.
Wong moved here several years ago, interested in volunteer work leading her to meet Barbara Christwitz and to work with Citizens Caring for Clearlake. Together they were able to achieve official 501 C-3 non-profit status in June of this year. Since then, they have begun many projects with the city of Clearlake including the Clean California Project and Clean Clearlake initiative.
As part of this project the city provides access to "free dump days, $50 reimbursements, and putting eight murals across Clearlake. "You have seen one at Castle Donuts one at the chamber building at one more at Ed and Linda's," Wong said. He continued to explain how these murals and the others will be embedded digitally to create an augmented reality or artificial intelligence scene the free dump days. The city has held four of these already at Redbud Park where residents can bring their garbage to them. According to Wong, the city reaches out to residents via email and text message and the next dump day will be September 23. These are only for city of Clearlake residents and registration is available at POP Clearlake (the yoga studio providing free classes), where residents can also get their $50 reimbursement for dump fees at this location. More information is available on CleanClearlake.com.
Another program the group particiaptes in is the Day Work Program where Citizens Caring for Clearlake works with Cal Trans to provide paid day labor for individuals in need, hoping to incentivize those facing employment issues without identification. The program provides individuals with a 1099 on site in order to employ them that day, utilizing their labor to assist with Code Enforcement operations and clean up. The CC4C also operate a Kids Caring for Clearlake program. They recently filmed a short music video parody of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" titled "Clean It."
The programs have been a success thus far as Chriswitz noted, "It's wonderful that we have people coming together to help clean up." Clearlake City Manager Alan Flora said, "We are really proud of what Code Enforcement has been able to do." He also shared how increased citation revenue has been helpful and added he was proud of the city's recent ability to hire and retain code enforcement officers.
The Judge's Breakfast is held every Thursday at 7 a.m. and is open to the public. A full breakfast is available for purchase but not necessary for participation. Next week's speaker is Lake County Tax Collector Patrick Sullivan and more information is available on the Judge's Breakfast Facebook page.
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