A fundraiser is looking to help local outdoors volunteer clean-up group PacOut Green Team replace a stolen truck and equipment.
The fundraiser posted on GoFundMe is currently collecting donations from the community to help group founder Aaron Ostrom replace a Dodge Dakota truck and a 2012 California trailer that contained the group’s buckets, pickers and other equipment to collect litter. The truck and hitched trailer were stolen in late April in Eureka. As of Tuesday afternoon, nearly $7,000 of the $15,000 goal was raised.
Ostrom is happy to see people’s support.
“It’s overwhelming to see the positive support for what we do,” he said. “You know, the community really supports what we do and we’re here to clean up our community, that hasn’t changed while we’ve been out of some supplies and trailers and vehicles.”
The truck was found on Monday off Blue Lake Boulevard on Green Diamond Resource Co. private property. As posted on a fundraiser update, the vehicle was stripped of several engine parts, the driver’s side door, its catalytic converter and other components, rendering it a total loss. No arrests have been made in the case.
The trailer was reported to be found on April 28 in McKinleyville with much of the supplies still inside. Ostrom said it was in bad shape but can still tow.
Despite having its equipment stolen, the group continued with its weekly clean-up activities using personal equipment.
“We’ve still been able to maintain our weekly clean-ups while kind of limping along with some of the stuff we didn’t have, so that hasn’t affected our clean-up schedule,” Ostrom said.
The fundraiser is posted at https://bit.ly/3ouCSdV. More information on PacOut Green Team and its activities is available at https://pacoutgreenteam.org/.
Mario Cortez can be reached at 707-441-0526.
