2023 Barstow Clean Up — Clean Dezert

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and got some family time in, I know a lot of us needed it after this incredible event! As always, our biggest contributor to making this happen is YOU! Without you, none of this would be possible and we are glad that we are able to come together to make an impact this big for our desert family.

Months of preparation and meetings all for one day of pure greatness. What most don’t see is the planning for these events starts 4 months before the event. Figuring out logistics, Dumpsters, Sponsors, Supplies and always fine tuning our craft takes time. As the days of the week got knocked off the calendar, the time had come to bring everything together. A few of us headed out Thursday early with the intentions of getting a ton of work done, to our surprise we accomplished a lot even though we spent most of the day catching up and discussing the impending work that was to come.

Friday morning, we were awakened by the loud banging of dumpsters being hauled down a rough Barstow road. Only 2 of us woke up to hear the symphony of Burrtec Disposal coming at us, the rest apparently didn’t want to get up at 6am. This is usually the alarm for the day to get started as we knew we only had a few hours until people started showing up and our work tapered off into more of a casual conversation with friends we had not seen in months. This is always the calm before the storm. Did we have enough raffle prizes, did we have enough forms to fill out, what color raffle tickets were we going to use, did our staff know what they are doing… and by staff, I mean friends who show up to help for the pure enjoyment of doing something good.

Saturday, oh Saturday how you came so fast. For Adam this was a rough morning, with almost no sleep as he had so much running through his brain, he awoke at 4am, a full 2 hours earlier than his alarm. Good thing Outlet Center is so close, he filled up with coffee and pondered what he got himself into. As the sun crested over the hills, his staff was up and ready to get moving. Vendors were on their way in to set up so our volunteers had a chance to talk to the companies who support the sport and check out all the new products they had on hand. As soon as we start the final preps, people were getting in line eager to sign up and get breakfast by Barstow Del Taco. This turned out to be feat all its own as they almost didn’t fit in the truck when we went to pick them up. Despite some snags, signups went smoothly and we sent people out to start their own adventure to find trash.

The first hour or so is always worrisome, not sure if everyone knows were to go or if the dumpsters will get filled. This year was a bit worrisome as there had been another clean-up just a month prior, and during our pre-run of the area, we found a ton of trash, but was not sure if we could fill all the dumpsters we had ordered. But as soon as those thoughts came into our heads, a drove of vehicles started filing in with truck loads of trash. To this day, we still have no idea where people find all this trash, it really is a site to see. Within a few hours, we had all the dumpsters full, with quite a few heaping over. As it turns out, it was 22.5 tons, or 45,000 lbs. of trash that we pulled out of our public lands.

With the dumpsters filling up fast, we transitioned to our longtime friends, BadLinesGoodTimes. These guys volunteered their time to make sure our volunteers had full bellies. This year they asked if they could do gourmet Brawts made by the one and only Caleb, or also known as, The Meat Man. He used his family recipe to make over 500 brawts, beans and corn for everyone. Weddle Industries was so gracious to cover the cost of all the food to help give back. It’s awesome what these two groups can do to make the event so much better than we could.

Now that lunch was wrapping up, everyone’s focus turned to the raffle. We have so many great sponsors who donate to this each year, that our events are known for this. For Clean-Dezert, this means a lot as we love giving back to the volunteers. And this brings a huge smile on our face every year. This year, Deluxe Window Tinting funded the kids raffle. This means every kid onsite received a toy for doing their part. We believe this is important for the future of our sport and to help teach some responsibility to the future generation of off-roaders to help preserve our public lands.

Everyone also started depositing their tickets into little boxes for there chance at winning a prize of there choosing. With a lot of major prizes laid out over several tables, there was no shortage of something that tickled your fancy to drop what could possibly be the golden ticket. We had prizes ranging from a Camburg Full Floater housing, Fiberglass Fenders, Air Compressors, signed Race Art to coolers. What was even better, was watching the kids raffle fire off in the middle of the adult raffle.

This year after our raffle, our good friend Down4Mobbin organized a flag run to see how many vehicles we could line up with American Flags to show our Support since our event was on Veterans Day Weekend. With a ton of vehicles flying Old Glory from our clean-up down to Barstow, there was no shortage of patriotism among us and paying our respects to this great country.

Now is the time for the staff to relax. We have made it a tradition to go to Oggi’s, who happens to be one of our sponsors, to grab dinner and reflect on the work we had done. After dinner and some great stories around the camp fire we learned that a special Elf made a special appearance for the Friends of Oceano Dunes and even snuck into a picture! All in all, it’s amazing what an idea, some phone calls and great friends can pull together. Its not about just cleaning the desert, its about making friends, supporting each other and keeping our public lands Clean and Open. I want to thank each and every sponsor, volunteer and our staff. This event was the smoothest it has ever run, and the people who help us put it on are amazing. If you ever see anyone wearing a Clean-Dezert hat, shirt or sticker please thank them for the support to keep our deserts clean.

Once again, none of this would be possible without any of our sponsors, and especially YOU! Be sure to support those that support you and believe that making a small difference today, will lead to making a major positive impact on our public lands. Working together, preserving public lands, showing the next generation how to respect and fight for our right to keep our land open.