4.22.2022 Earth Day Kick Off Event

all right guys we want to thank everyone for coming out this afternoon it's happy earth day first i want to acknowledge elected officials that did join us today uh my friend alan silvia represents the south end of fall river and our congressman jake austin class who's going to represent all of fall river next year but right now he has the north end also with us is representative carol fiola

and we have a number of volunteers which are pitching in for this event recreation stepping stone family services people inc boys and girls club justice resource bay coast sir jobs amazon studio m generations for youth empowerment we have a number of people that pitch in for these events this is a great place to celebrate earth day as you can see from all the people that come out that care about the

community and pitch in from the watapa heights i mean i'm sorry from a tupper pond to our woods fall river is 50 woods and water and today we're celebrating earth day to make sure the city is a clean respectable place to live we've been doing cleanups since 2020 and they've been a fantastic way for our residents and community groups to get out make a difference and meet one another and i am very very grateful for

everyone that comes out today and pitches in uh i noticed maureen estes is also with us from senator rodrik's office representing tomorrow will be a two part at 10 o'clock in the morning if people want to pitch in two days in a row that would be great i'm gonna let our elected officials say a few words before we turn it over to uh patty rigo uh viva fall river um first up we'll let um

congressman jake austin just say a few things thanks to the mayor for spearheading this and to the civil society organizations that are here in support and most of all to the volunteers who are committed to doing their part on earth day at a time when so many people engage in the challenges of our day with nay saying and with snarky social media posts it's so refreshing to see kids roll up their

sleeves and get to work to help their local community with real action with real results i share your dedication to a clean energy sustainable future that can address climate action head on and i'm on this earth day doubling down on my commitment to ensure that climate change does not devastate this planet for the next generation in congress i am focused on passing the 550 billion dollars in clean

energy tax credits and an incentive for electrification that will be the largest single investment in climate action in history that will allow the united states not just to uh transition our economy to a clean energy future but also to re-establish moral leadership on the world stage as we seek to work with developing and develop nations to get to 100 renewables by 2050 in accord with our paris agreements

but these international and national actions need to be married to local results and working with bristol county legislature legislators and nonprofits my colleague bill keating and i have secured funding for the national offshore wind institute and for infrastructure that can support the offshore wind industry which has the capacity to not only with clean energy power millions of massachusetts homes

and businesses but also be an important cluster of economic development and job creation for bristol county widely uh it's an honor to be here honor to roll up my sleeves and work with you on this earth day and to be here with my colleagues in state and local government as we are committed to a clean energy and a to a sustainable future thanks all for having me thank you mayor thank you congressman my

colleague alan silvia i think the one thing that gets me as i stand here today on this earth day uh is so many young people and you know we work really hard whether it's at in washington dc or at the state house to put the action to the words we talk about whether it's the wind energy coming which some of you probably it's not even on your radar yet to see the incredible impact that that

is going to make not only on the south coast and in fall river but on the east coast and the entire country we're going to be a leader in wind energy so today we're here for all of you because you are the future and earth day really should be every day and doing our part to ensure that this world we live in this community we live in is uh is well taken care of so i am

so proud to join my colleagues the mayor my legislative uh colleagues and of course our great congressmen and our senators uh to be with you today so uh thank you i i see also uh rep schmidt's is represented here as well there isn't an event that goes by that we don't try to be with you so thank you all uh earth day remember it kicks off today but it's every day thank you

i just want to uh echo those words of my colleague and i'm very thankful uh that our mayor and congressmen are here today uh and the other elected official officials i know i see mimi out there with the boys and girls club it's so important uh you know um we used to say don't be a litter bug do you remember that don't be a litter bug i think that was 100 years ago

uh but we shouldn't be we should be encouraging people not to throw thrash out the windows and litter our streets and unfortunately we still see that and it's your generation the young people that i'm looking at that can make the difference can make that influence others not to do those things so i'm thankful that you're all here i'll take tomorrow we're going to be up at the shoe park in the south end of the city

and we'll be uh replicating this again and doing this again but as rick piola just said it should be every day we have to do this every day we have to watch uh what would what we're throwing out the waste on our streets it's so important to keep our community clean thank you all for being here hi good afternoon my name is patty rigo i'm the director of viva fall river

for the past two and a half years viva fall river with the support of mass development's transformative development initiative has focused on downtown revitalization efforts aimed at promoting the area and the city as a whole as a premier south coast destination our viva south main initiative works to change public perceptions and address chronic issues such as trash and the physical condition

of the area last year we piloted a beautification pro project on south main installing 60 hanging flower baskets on light posts landscaping the tree beds pruning trees and collecting over 28 yards of debris in the next couple of weeks keep an eye out for those baskets to return as well as the start of a summer long program that will ensure that the area remains maintained viva continues to create connections and

build a sense of community among those located in the district both the small businesses and its residents this kind of productive engagement is what we need more of in this city people taking care people taking part to create the change that they wish to see our efforts and efforts such as this cleanup help to foster a sense of pride in this place that we call home thank you to all the volunteers who came

out on this beautiful day and i'm going to turn this over to sarah labossiere from mass in motion who is hosting tomorrow's cleanup hi i'm sarah labassio i'm the coordinator for mass in motion in fall river and i did want to just come here and and remind all the people in the audience and anyone that's watching that if you haven't had enough if you want to do more come out and join us tomorrow at 10

a.m we'll be meeting next to the globe street fire station next to chew park and we'll clean up from 10 to 12. bring your reusable water bottles i have water to refill that and i have some fruit donated from nasa fruit company as well so i encourage you to come out and join us tomorrow i also would like just to point out that mass emotion is involved with food and fitness and and being

outside is a great way to get some exercise and just take care of your environment and and improve your own personal self at the same time so i encourage you to come out and join us tomorrow as well as the other series of cleanups that we have scheduled please pick up a flyer on the table um i am the point person also for the rail trail cleanups on may 7th which is

a saturday and saturday may 28th which will prepare for two lovely outdoor events um the fabric festival uh the 12th through the 14th of may and the quicksand river festival which is june 4th so all of those things you're invited to and i hope you join us thank you that will conclude the speaking program if you need some tools get it out of the van right there or see you later if you

don't know where you want to go to help we're going to head out now and do some cleaning i appreciate everybody for coming out today and uh we're only going to do this for a couple hours and we'll see you tomorrow at 10 o'clock at tupac if you're so inclined thank you everybody