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Main > Public Works > PW Lakes
Our Annual Events in Lakeland
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Classes, Workshops, Volunteering......
The Lakes and Stormwater Division coordinates with other organizations to offer a variety of classes and workshops relating to pollution prevention, our lakes, plant management, water quality, NPDES, and erosion control for all. Review more classes and workshops here and then contact us to register for an upcoming class or to schedule one for your own homeowners association, scouting, or school group!
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Volunteer Events: Regularly, events are scheduled for specific lake basins. Through our Adopt-A-Lake (AAL) program, we provide the equipment (bags, gloves, safety vests, litter grabbers, nets, storm drain plaques, glue adhesive...) while our dedicated volunteers provide the help.
Please contact us to schedule a lake clean-up, storm drain plaque marking, leaf street sweep up, non-native vegetation removal, or native vegetation plantings. Students needing school community hours are encouraged to participate.
Students - You may contact us to learn more on how you can participate in our training to demonstrate the 'Enviroscape' at our events.
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February - Engineers Week
National Engineers Week was founded in 1951. National Engineers Week is celebrated each year at the time of George Washington’s birthday (observed on the Monday holiday of President's Day). Our nation’s first president was a military engineer and a land surveyor, acquiring the title ‘our nation’s first engineer’. In 1794, President Washington established a Corps of Artillerists and Engineers to be educated and stationed at West Point in New York, which later become the US Military Academy at West Point. After his death, the US Army Core of Engineers began many of the projects that President Washington envisioned.
Within the top 20 greatest achievements of the 20th Century was #4 – Safe and Abundant Water. The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) tells us that Ellen Swallow Richards was a pioneer in the field of environmental engineering with her ground breaking research of water contamination.
Join in....
Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day: Officially the Thursday of Engineers Week, reaching K-12 girls with positive messages about math and science education and engineering careers.
E-Week's Future City Competition: This is a team-based, hands-on project for 7th and 8th graders, to envision and develop their city in the future. SimCity software is used for the Competition. For more information on how to register and compete go to E-Week’s Future City. Competition papers are available in August of each year - Good Luck!
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March - Great American Clean-Up
Volunteers throughout America participate in litter clean-ups.
During the annual event in Lakeland - families, scout troops, school groups, businesses, homeowner associations, and civic and sports clubs participates in litter clean-up around our lakes. Afterwards everyone meets at Lake Parker Park to enjoy entertainment, environmental displays, and refreshments. Call Sharon Siegel, Executive Director of Lakeland Clean & Beautiful at (863)834-3306 or contact
Cindy Hill, Lakes Program Coordinator, for more information.
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May - Public Works Week
Public Works Week is a world-wide annual American Public Works Association (APWA) event. This event is to promote Public Works and to educate residents about the activities of their local Public Works Departments.
Lakes and Stormwater participates in the COL Public Works Department’s annual weekend celebration. The Lakes and Stormwater display includes project photo updates, AAL program information, aquatic vegetation information, Enviroscape demostration, and hands-on identification of organisms living within our lakes! Visit our Director's Public Works Week page for more information on this event.
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July - Lakes Appreciation Month
Pictures and Highlights
This annual observance coordinated through the North American Lakes Management Society (NALMS) encourages everyone to become aware of the importance of our lakes and the impacts we have on these individually unique eco-systems! It also corresponds with the Great North American Secchi Dip In, where people all around North America use a secchi disc to determine water clarity. Volunteers then submit their data to a central database maintained by Kent State University. To learn more about Lakes Appreciation Month and the Great American Secchi Dip In go to NALMS. Lakeland coordinates events locally to celebrate Lakes Appreciation Month, so check our calendar frequently for updates.
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September - Florida Coastal Clean-up
The Ocean Conservancy coordinated its first Coastal Clean up in 1986 when 2,800 volunteers collected 124 tons of trash from 122 miles of Texas shoreline. Florida came on board in 1988 and conducted its first statewide cleanup. Then, with the addition of Canada and Mexico in 1989, the clean up became an international event.
The mission of the Coastal Clean-up is to remove debris from the shorelines, waterways, and beaches of the world’s lakes, rivers and oceans; to educate people on the issue of marine debris; to collect valuable information on the amount and types of debris; to use the information collected from the cleanup to effect positive change on all levels – from the individual to the international – to reduce marine debris and enhance marine conservation.
Over the last 15 years, over 300,000 dedicated Florida volunteers have cleaned more than seven million pounds of debris from our shorelines and inland waterways, covering almost 20,000 miles.
For more information and to participate in Lakeland's Coastal Clean-up contact Sharon Siegel, Executive Director of Lakeland Clean & Beautiful, at (863)834-3306 or contact Cindy Hill, Lakes Program Coordinator. |
November - Earth Day
The first Earth Day (Arbor Day) was celebrated in 1970. Polk County celebrates Earth Day with “Water, Wings, and Wild Things - Polk Nature Fest.” The event includes music, dancing performances, food vendors, environmental educational displays, animals, sand art and painting activities. This year's event is scheduled for Saturday, November 1st, at Circle B Bar Ranch to coincide with the grand opening of Polk's Nature Discovery Center. Contact
Cindy Hill, Lakes Program Coordinator, for more information.
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