Wadeware volunteers were out in force on Sept. 16 behind Team Captain Dave Parker, a software engineer at Wadeware, to battle a horde of invasive species plants in the woods of Carillon Park in Kirkland.

Sixteen Wadeware volunteers joined with many others from Physio-Control, a healthcare firm and the inventor of a heart defibrillator and a CPR device, AT&T, and the Port of Seattle to take part in the King County-wide Day of Caring. EarthCorps managed the clean-up effort in the park, and our young coordinator, Anastasia, a Russian from Siberia on a 6-month stint with the environmental organization, did a bang up job organizing our team into a valiant force, our T-shirts proclaiming the slogans of the day: Compassion, Commitment and Action. The weather held as our team battled the mighty Himalayan Blackberry, hacking through towering canes of stickers, we pulled armful after armful of the stuff out of the park, along with countless yards of ivy, to remove the strangle hold of these plants on much of the woods.

While eradicating these pervasive plants in the park, the team was careful to leave a native species of blackberry alone. Who knew that there really are blackberry forces of good and evil in the Pacific Northwest? We do now. After lunch, at the encouragement of our brave Russian coordinator, Anastasia tasked us to go up against Stinky Bob, a.k.a. Geranium robertianum, another invasive plant that the crew pulled up and carried out of the park in heaps.

With the work done, we nursed a few nettlesome scratches and then formed a circle to remark on the events of the day before leaving the woods. The EarthCorps members warmly thanked us for our efforts, and Anastasia let us know that in addition to vanquishing Stinky Bob, the team cleared a whopping 4,200 sq. feet of area in the park!

United Way of King County later reported that this year’s Day of Caring was truly a resounding success.

Wadeware volunteers took part in this groundswell event that turned out 11,000 people, a 10 percent increase over the number of folks who participated last year, according to Hamilton, an EarthCorps project leader. The final numbers for the day are indeed inspiring to see:

• 11,000 volunteers from 122 companies participated.
• 52,000 hours of labor were donated.
• $1.1 million worth of people power.
• 416 service projects were volunteered for the event through 293 agencies.
• Stinky Bob plants remaining in Carillon Park: 0

For more information check out the official United Way press release.