Trashbusters google 'International Cleanup Day'

As part of Google International Cleanup Day--a series of semi-coordinated events centered on the MyMaps application--eight Google employees, plus their friends, met on Saturday at 9 a.m. to beautify Greer Park in Palo Alto, Calif. As part of the event, teams of 6 to 10 people were encouraged to create map mashups detailing a local area in need of loving attention. More than 300 maps were created before Cleanup Day, which took place October 13 and October 14 on six continents.

Cleanup Day began when Google Earth Outreach employees decided to turn summer intern Jie Un's MyMaps tutorial of a beach cleanup into an internal event for Google employees worldwide. This, in turn, branched into a public event in which partner organizations such as the Sierra Club and AmeriCorps encouraged members to plan cleanups of their own.