Ocotillo Wells Feb 19th 2022 RECAP
For those of you that might be wondering, Clean-Dezert has been putting on clean-ups across the High Desert of southern California for 16+ years (yep, back before the advent of social media, smart phones, and air pods... we're THAT OLD), but in all of that time we've never really ventured to new areas. For 2022 we were looking for some new areas to focus on to try to change things up a bit. An out-of-the-blue phone call from the California State Parks regarding needing some help in Ocotillo Wells was the perfect opportunity for our growth and we took the call as a sign. We gladly accepted the challenge for an Ocotillo Wells clean-up as well as a chance to work with the 'Friends of Ocotillo Wells' and the California State parks.
After a few phone calls to iron-out some details we were "off to the races" (so-to-speak) for the event. We had a date scheduled and we were starting to get a solid plan set up. It was now time for Clean-Dezert to do what we do best: organize sponsors to help rally volunteers and promote this awesome NEW event! One of our goals for this one was to find a whole new base of sponsors so we didn’t burn-out all of the trusted companies who have so graciously supported us in the past . We felt that asking for donations from the same companies multiple times a year would be overreaching and/or maybe seem a little greedy. As we started to put in work and time with making new contacts, we quickly realized that this Ocotillo Wells clean-up was going to be big. The support we were receiving from the industry was amazing. With just a single call to North County Yamaha they were able to bring in another 6 sponsors/vendors to the event such as the Blu In, Blu In rentals, Yamaha, Can-Am, Ocotillo RV Resort, as well as KTM. It was apparent that everyone has an extreme love for Ocotillo Wells which is something we haven't experienced with our other events in this same capacity. Quite a few of our sponsors own land in the area and spend almost every 'desert season' weekend out there like the guys at Fishgistics, Bob Davis Painting, Dave Meyers, RVMD and Complete Trailer to name just a few. They were all very quick to jump onboard to make sure their home away from home was taken care of and seeing some love.
The weekend of the event came quick, and it was time to pack up and head out. A few folks from the Clean-Dezert team headed out early to relax before the busy holiday weekend. Thursday and Friday the weather was amazing, and the desert was fairly quiet. By Friday night however the 78 was buzzing with vehicles coming out to the desert for the holiday weekend and it was a solid line of vehicles well into the night. The Clean-Dezert team spent a few hours going through our raffle products and plans for the following day. We would wake up at 6am and meet the California State parks team and get the event center set up for the day. After a couple of hours we had everything set for what was going to turn out to be the largest clean-up ever assembled in the state park. We had 10 vendors set up with us early in the morning getting ready for the rush of over 400 volunteers starting to sign-up at 9am. The day flew by faster than we could've imagined. We filled 4 (qty 4) 40 cubic yard dumpsters (aka roll-offs) in just 3 hours! While that’s less than our other events, it’s important to remember that the trash in Ocotillo Wells is mostly smaller debris that’s blown by the wind and not so much the large dumping sites that we typically see in the High Desert. The Friends of Ocotillo Wells started lunch at noon and quickly fed all of our volunteers’ hamburgers, hot dogs and chips. This is by no means a small task. They cooked up over 400 hamburgers and close to 300 hotdogs. By 1pm we got the raffle started. We made sure each youngster walked away with a small toy as we feel it’s important to get them involved and make sure they have some fun too. We estimate that we raffled off over $20,000 in products donated by some of the best companies in the industry. Some of the highlights were the 7" GPS donated by Brady So Cal, the RC Car donated by Long Glazing, $2000 worth of gift certificates by RVMD, $1000 by Method Race Wheels, and the over $5,000 worth of cash and TVs by the Gravel Kings. This was by far one of the longest and largest raffles we've had to date. In the end, this event went (mostly) as planned and we'll continue to do our best to fine-tune these events into the future. We pulled out more trash than expected and all the agencies involved were extremely pleased with how it all went. With the success of the event, we're definitely planning on keeping this as a yearly clean-up! We couldnt have asked for a better day with better sponsors or a better group of volunteers to support us and our deserts.
As for us, we're just a small group of friends doing our part to keep our deserts open and I'd like to thank the Clean-Dezert staff for all their hard work and time that they donate to the cause: Corey & Kristina Brewer, Landon 'the camper-crusher' Mcquestion, Josb and Lora Rodiles, 'Cuban' Steve Torres Trevor 'Chef' Stift, Jake and Papa Gort, Mike ‘Overland’ Burt and of course my wife for letting me spend my spare time with this project. Without this team putting in a lot of work, time, and energy, none of this would be possible.
And ofcourse a huge THANK YOU to our sponsors who make this all possible.
North County Yamaha Yamaha Gravel Kings
Long Glazing Fox Factory Challenger Sheetmetal
RVMD Fishgistics Dynamics Weapon Solutions
Bitlwell Bobby D Painting Iron Door Bar
Ocotillo Wells Facebook Group Blu In CanAm
Blu In Offroad Rentals Desert Dogs Ocotillo Wells RV Park and Store
Complete Trailer Jubera Fab TerraCrew
Shock Seals Richer Racing Friends of Ocotillo Wells
KTM TreadLightly Rigid Industries
McNeil Fiberglass 5150 Whips Locked Shocks
Ocho Fab AZBoards Fiberwerx
ToolRoll Seek and Enjoy TowPig
Cullwell Fab Roth Shocks Motion Pro
Solo Motorsports Cruz Armor Brady SoCal