A Cleaner Alki is a community cleanup group that grew out of a long-running Saturday morning beach cleanup between Seattle brothers, Erik and Garet Bell.
In the first year of the Pandemic, Erik found himself anxious and depressed for the first time in his life, not knowing what to do with himself most mornings. An hour cleaning up along Alki Beach, however, became the remedy for getting the day moving and his mind reset.
After several months of these daily therapy cleans, Erik posted an open invitation on a local Facebook group inviting neighbors to join him at the beach the following morning.
Moved by the community’s response, he followed up with a manifesto describing how the cleanups were helping him through the pandemic, and asked if this resonated with others. Would they be interested in creating a cleanup community in West Seattle? An outpouring of support helped springboard the launch of A Cleaner Alki in July 2021.
In the years that have followed, the group has grown to over 2,500 members and have taken their mission off the beach and out into the community to address the many complicated cleanup needs around the region.
Members can choose between group cleanup events at the beach, parks, residential neighborhoods, schools, business junctions, industrial areas, abandoned encampments, and illegal dumping grounds.
The group has partnered with Seattle Parks Foundation as our fiscal sponsor, so we're able to go after grants and receive tax-deductible donations under SPF's 501 (c)(3) nonprofit status. We've also partnered with Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), Seattle Parks & Rec, and Green Seattle Partnership Forest Stewards for collaborative weekly cleanups. We also just completed our second year of facilitating the All Hands Cleanup series for Seattle Public Utilities’ Adopt A Street program which held 10 citywide cleanups in six different Seattle neighborhoods over 2025.
In the first year of the Pandemic, Erik found himself anxious and depressed for the first time in his life, not knowing what to do with himself most mornings. An hour cleaning up along Alki Beach, however, became the remedy for getting the day moving and his mind reset.
After several months of these daily therapy cleans, Erik posted an open invitation on a local Facebook group inviting neighbors to join him at the beach the following morning.
Moved by the community’s response, he followed up with a manifesto describing how the cleanups were helping him through the pandemic, and asked if this resonated with others. Would they be interested in creating a cleanup community in West Seattle? An outpouring of support helped springboard the launch of A Cleaner Alki in July 2021.
In the years that have followed, the group has grown to over 2,500 members and have taken their mission off the beach and out into the community to address the many complicated cleanup needs around the region.
Members can choose between group cleanup events at the beach, parks, residential neighborhoods, schools, business junctions, industrial areas, abandoned encampments, and illegal dumping grounds.
The group has partnered with Seattle Parks Foundation as our fiscal sponsor, so we're able to go after grants and receive tax-deductible donations under SPF's 501 (c)(3) nonprofit status. We've also partnered with Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), Seattle Parks & Rec, and Green Seattle Partnership Forest Stewards for collaborative weekly cleanups. We also just completed our second year of facilitating the All Hands Cleanup series for Seattle Public Utilities’ Adopt A Street program which held 10 citywide cleanups in six different Seattle neighborhoods over 2025.
