With the government shutdown entering its fourth week, two groups set out Saturday afternoon to make sure Fort Vancouver National Historic Site wasn’t overflowing with garbage.
It turned out, they probably weren’t the first to think of that.
“There was barely any garbage on the ground,” said Helen Sudbeck, who cleaned the grounds with her family. “The cans weren’t even full. It’s like everyone is being careful and picking up after themselves while there’s a shutdown.”
Sudbeck was out on Saturday with her husband, Kevin Sudbeck, and their kids, James Sudbeck, 27, and Kat Sudbeck, 18.
The fort grounds remain open to the public, but staff has been furloughed due to the partial federal government shutdown that began Dec. 21 and has affected around 800,000 employees across the country. The shutdown encompasses all national parks, including the Fort Vancouver site. The indoor facilities at the fort, including the Visitors Center, Pearson Air Museum, McLoughlin House and reconstructed Fort Vancouver, are closed. Trash collection, restrooms and road maintenance have been shelved until employees can come back to work.
Sara Rediske organized one of the cleanups, and said she was motivated by the shutdown.
“I wanted to make sure when folks get back to work they are not left with heaps of extra work,” she wrote in an email. “I wish I could do more for them.”
Rediske wrote that six people joined her, and they collected “one very full bag of trash.” She was “happily surprised to see that the community seems to have stepped up to keep the space fairly clean.” She also plans on checking out Steigerwald Lake Wildlife Refuge sometime soon to see how it looks.
Lynelle Shaffer was out with her grandson, Shea Osborn, 7, of Vancouver picking up garbage on Saturday. They read about the cleanup in The Columbian and wanted to help. Shea said he was inspired to help because Martin Luther King Jr. Day is coming up.
“I like picking up garbage,” he said. “On MLK Jr. Day you’re supposed to help people.”
The Sudbeck family of Camas also wanted to help due to the shutdown. Kevin Sudbeck is a retired Navy pilot, and said he got the idea after seeing a national effort for people to go clean up national parks organized by the Libertarian Party. He said his event wasn’t affiliated with any particular party, but he thought it was a nice gesture because of the shutdown.
“You guys can sort it out in Washington,” he said. “In the meantime, we can clean up.”
Their cleanup consisted of 13 people, as a few people joined in when they saw them. They collected about a dozen bags of garbage. One man not involved with the cleanup offered to haul away six of them.
Helen and Kevin Sudbeck said they like to help out where they can. They’ve volunteered with the Special Olympics of Clark County for the last eight year. They were pleasantly surprised with both the turnout for the cleanup, and how clean the grounds already were.
“People are doing this in anonymity,” Kevin Sudbeck said. “They’re doing it on their own because that’s part of the culture in Clark County. We do what needs to be done without much fanfare.”
