âAnd the whole Earth,â chimed in his 6-year-old brother, Jared.
Saturday was Clean-Up Day, and the Alvarez family, including mom, Johanna, and sister, 4-year-old Lidia, decided to spruce up the neighborhood near their church.
They found cigars, napkins, cardboard, shopping bags and face masks. The childrenâs father, Ken, carried the telltale yellow Clean-Up Day bag.
With the blue sky, warm temperatures and passersby honking their horns in support, it made for happy work for dozens of people around Fairbanks. The annual collective action results in tons of litter removed from neighborhoods and roadsides in time for summer.
Last year, Clean-Up Day volunteers collected 10.5 tons of trash in the Fairbanks North Star Borough. The goal this year is 17 tons or the equivalent to the weight of a school bus.
Alaska health officials expressed their excitement about new CDC guidelines that donât require fully vaccinated people to wear a mask or physically distance in most of settings. However, for communities with high virus transmission and low vaccination rates, the advice is to stay cautious and evaluate your risks.
Fully vaccinated people â those who completed their vaccination series more than two weeks ago â can now resume activities without wearing a mask or staying six feet apart in most indoors and outdoors settings, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.
âWe are just happy to see this new guidance the CDC put out,â state epidemiologist Joe McLaughlin said during a Thursday news briefing.
The Fairbanks school district announced Thursday that people age 16 and older no longer need to wear face masks or social distance at schools and at district events.
The announcement comes after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed public health guidance for vaccinated people on Thursday.
Additionally, the Fairbanks North Star Borough and the University of Alaska Fairbanks are working on updating their rules around Covid-19, and the city of Fairbanks is looking at lifting the mask requirement for vaccinated city employees, according to a spokeswoman.
The school district put out an announcement loosening its Covid-19 protocols within hours of the CDC announcement.