One Bag, One Neighborhood: Flanagan Park Gets a Little Cleaner
Article Written By: Joe Petsche
The picture above shows Flanagan park just as we saw it when we arrived. Maybe there was a piece of trash visible in the corner of the park, by general inspection it looked especially clean .
Twenty-five minutes. That's all it took.
That's the whole idea behind the One Bag Challenge, a program from our friends at the Trails & Open Space Coalition (TOSC) — and it's exactly why a small crowd of neighbors showed up at Flanagan Park on a Tuesday morning ready to fill a bag, not a whole afternoon.
If you've ever skipped a cleanup because you pictured three hours of clean up in a "really nasty spot," we get it. The traditional model is brutal. TOSC built the One Bag Challenge around a different idea entirely: pick up what you can in one bag!
12 people showed up. Goal: Spend 25 minutes picking up trash. Come back together, look at the trash and create art.The kids really excelled at the art part!
The ground rules were simple: if it looks yucky, sharp, or just plain nasty, leave it. It was a great group of neighbors, with bags and gloves, looking out for each other as much as the park. It was sunny and windy so we wanted to finish before it got too hot and were careful not to let too much blow away.
After the 25 minutes were up, the group met back at the pavilion to dump everything out on a tablecloth and see what they'd found together — part inventory, part evidence ("data I can use to convince others not to be evil doers," as the coordinator put it), and part impromptu art project out of whatever didn't blow away in the wind.
Adults from left to right, Aaron Rogers - TOSC Program Coordinator, Joe Petsche - Hey Neighbor Community Coordinator, Matt Jones - Papeton Neighborhood President, joined with many other local residents.
It's a small format with a big track record. Since launching in spring 2024, the One Bag Challenge has hosted more than 110 cleanups, brought out over 900 participants, and pulled more than 7,700 pounds of litter off trails, parks, and open spaces across the Pikes Peak region.
But the bigger point isn't the pounds it's the people. A short cleanup, a few new faces, a shared task that gives neighbors a reason to stand in a field together for half an hour. That's the same spirit behind Hey Neighbor's own work: it doesn't take a huge event to build a stronger block. Sometimes it just takes a bag.
Bring a One Bag Challenge to your neighborhood! Reach out to Aaron Rogers, TOSC's program coordinator, at aaron@trailsandopenspaces.org to schedule a cleanup of your own.
