Dirty Hands Clean Sands by Dirt Life Media

Hi, I'm Dillon from Dirt Life Media!

I'm trying to raise money to help support the efforts to keep our sand dunes clean, and litter free! I built a trash trailer, that gets towed to popular meetup spots to help keep litter out of the sand, and a magnet that attaches to the front of my UTV that picks up nails from "pallet burners" out of our campgrounds and OHV areas. We are trying to raise money to help keep the efforts going and fight the war on trashl! We are trying to build a second trailer that has more capacity and is more capable of getting further into the dunes and deserts. One of our goals is to bring a tractor with a beach cleaner in tow to reclaim our dunes and make Glamis better than its ever been.

We, are taking the fight head-on in Glamis first, but will be continuing our efforts to other parts of the country, as we travel on our tour and clean different OHV areas!

Follow along on our Instagram page at Dirt Life Media!

How'd I end up here.........? I don't think anyone has ever quite heard this FULL story...so here we go!

Last year, I was trying to figure out my life and decided to take a risk on myself. Dirt Life Media (my content channel) was starting to get calls to be places, I didn't like what I was doing, and I was sick of Colorado and the snow. So I sold my house and bought a toy hauler and set sail for the unexpected. My goal was to live life on the road for a year, do this "UTV event tour" I planned for Dirt Life, see some cool things, meet some good people, and hopefully have all of the answers I was looking for by the end of the year. I didn't do the last part but the others were well checked off.

The plan was to travel to all of my bucket list places to ride my UTV while growing my content channel and doing videoes for different companies for different things....I was hitting all the events and shows I could.....one of the events on the schedule landed me at the Winchester Bay Sand Dunes in Oregon. I was up there to film some content for a few companies and be an "influencer" at the event. The event was awesome, the people were great. Riding the beach was incredible; the scenery was next level......I was camped right in the middle of the sand for the event, "STAGE CAMPING". I woke up Sunday morning, and almost all of the campers were cleared out....I looked around, and the place looked filthy....literally dirty apartment status. The main firepit was littered with nails....there was everything from your typical paper plates, to full tents in the bushes...we pulled out chunks of concrete, pallets and plywood, coolers, wheels....it was bad!

I was living on the road, and I didn't have to leave for anything.....so I stayed. I stayed for almost 3 weeks after that, parked in that same spot....made a deal with the rangers to let me stay, as long I was cleaning.....I went out several times a day, and swept that whole place, with the help of a few awesome locals.

Came time to roll to my next event.....UTV Invasion in Nephi, UT at the Little Sahara Recreation Area. We rolled into the main campground, Sand Mountain....huge flat area....COVERED in nails...you couldn't take a step without having to avoid them.

We had to make a run to town, for supplies later that afternoon, so we stopped into Harbor Freight and got a rolling magnet. We got back to the dunes, and put it to use immediately! Couldn't even count how many hours I spent pacing, back and forth, in our vendor area.....It felt embarrassing to me, and it wasn't anything I had to do with. Others noticed we had the magnet out, and joined in and asked to use it at their campsite. It was cool to see the magnet get passed from camp to camp, and we had quite the pile by the end of the week!

As I continued on my travels, from destination to destination, event to event...I would stay afterwards, and post videos of what these gorgeous places look like when the crowds leave,,,and then clean it up myself.

That ALL inspired this.....we built this custom setup trash trailer, to help promote the cleanliness of the dunes....and we have been towing it around the Glamis Sand Dunes to different meetup spots, (Oldsmobile Hill, the drags, and Swingset) to help cut down on the littering from weekenders, and I also take it out on solo missions to clean day to day during the week. I have been taking the magnet out and sweeping areas littered with nails, and the piles are starting to get BIG. We are taking a problem, that is typically dull, and bringing positive attention to it. We REALLY are having an impact, and I want to take it further. We not only make a difference by the trash we pick up.....but we make a lasting impression on ANYONE who sees us out there doing our thing, or the videos we create from it.

So here's the deal.......

I want to keep this going, bringing our trash trailer and magnet to different OHV areas across the country, cleaning our campgrounds and sandboxes, to help ensure they stay open for generations to come and enjoy...But I need help, and I'm coming to you guys, the people who share the same love for these places as me.

Jax Metal Fabrication designed and built the entire magnet structure and did all of the fabrication work on the trailer, including our side car seat, steps, tabs, brackets, etc. Levi and his team have over 120 hours of shop labor into this project to get it to what it is. Our invoice with them was $5800......very reasonable for a community solution to keep trash out of our dunes and we've literally prevented thousands of lost tires with the magnet. But it's still real money....and it takes real gas to get the setup to these community meetups and gatherings for use. And I am asking for help from the community it was built for to keep it going!

We are trying to get our nonprofit started, Dirty Hands Clean Sands, to grow this into our full vision, but in the meantime many people have requested I do this, as an easy way of helping keep this community purpose-built project funded, and out where it belongs, making a difference. I want to raise funds to help keep us out here fighting to keep our deserts clean! These places give us all so much joy and happiness, its time we give back!

I want to give the people who are willing to donate their hard-earned money, a place where they can see what it's doing, and the impact it's having on the places it was promised.

Your time, attention, and support have been amazing and I can't wait to see where WE can take this!

ANYTHING and EVERYTHING is helpful to keep us out here fighting trash, and is GREATLY APPRECIATED!

If you have any questions or want to know more, send me a message and I'd be happy to go into further details!

Thank you!

-Dillon

Dirt Life Media