(Erik Bell, right, with WS Rotary past president Mark Ward; WSB photo by Torin Record-Sand)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Erik Bell “is everywhere, all the time.”

So marveled Rotary Club of West Seattle past president Mark Ward in presenting the 2026 Patrick Sand Memorial Award to Bell, founder of A Cleaner Alki, today.

The club created the award “to honor the legacy” of WSB co-founder Patrick Sand – “perseverance, responsibility, determination to keep moving forward,” and made him its first recipient, posthumously, one year ago. Erik Bell is the second recipient.

(Photo courtesy A Cleaner Alki)

His four-year-old nonprofit is indeed everywhere – cleaning up and “sprucing up” sites all around the peninsula, and sometimes beyond. This is no casual weekend sideline. His recap of last year alone: 248 organized events, 4,800 volunteer hours, 68,000 pounds of trash and junk. Since A Cleaner Alki’s launch during the pandemic, Ward told club members during their weekly lunch meeting today:

Erik’s commitment to building community while cleaning and protecting the environment has grown tremendously … He’s rallied volunteers for cleanups and invasive-plant removal at our beaches, in parks and greenbelts, beneath the West Seattle Bridge, and along highways, arterials, and bike trails.

One of the most recent challenges he took on: Those tires dumped in Fairmount Ravine, shown here on Saturday. Though neither we nor our tipster knew it at the time, the tires already were on Bell’s radar, and his sleuthing has traced their suspected source, with a law-enforcement investigation hopefully to follow. (Right after today’s meeting, in fact, Bell told us, he was headed out to chase another offshoot of the situation … we last saw him in his familiar white A Cleaner Alki van, custom plates BY AND BY, aimed southbound on 35th from West Seattle Golf Course, where the Rotary has its meetings.)

The club also bestowed on Bell the Paul Harris Fellowship, in honor of Rotary International’s founder.

You can support Erik Bell’s quest for community improvement by pitching in with A Cleaner Alki almost any day – their upcoming cleanups are listed here, and daily DIY “Block Drop” equipment can be found at Alki – or loaned to you if you contact ACA.