It
remains the best volunteer gig in town: a free canoe ride down
the river, along with a complimentary breakfast, lunch, and
all the garbage bags you can fill.
Since
its inception in 1992, the bi-annual river clean-up has netted
more than 2,900 garbage bags, 4,500 old tires and roughly 13
additional tons of trash along the upper French Broad. Over
2,500 volunteers have participated in the event, many of them
returning year after year.
Volunteers
show up at Headwaters at 9:00 am and will be treated to a light
breakfast before being shuttled to a launching area in Rosman.
Everyone will be assigned canoes (no kayaks please), paddles,
life jackets, and garbage bags. Participants should bring sturdy
gloves, river shoes and tools such as long-handled barbecue
tongs to grap trash with. Its always a good idea to bring a
change of clothing for afterwards!
After
the clean-up wraps up, volunteers are served a lunch at Headwaters.
Lunch is a light-hearted affair, with volunteers swapping tales
of creatures hitchhiking in garbage bags and unusual finds excavated
from the riverbed.
Though
support for the clean-up has remained steady despite hard economic
times, new donations of cash or food are always welcome. Feeding
70 hungry trash collectors can get expensive. We could not do
this event twice a year without the gracious help of local businesses.
I think they realize, as do we, that the clean-up has an economic
as well as an environmental benefit. When the river is pristine-looking,
visitors come more often, stay longer, and spend more money
locally, which helps all of us who live and work here.
Anyone
who would like to donate or volunteer can send a check to the
Headwaters Outfitters, P.O. Box 1057, Rosman, NC 28772.
Or
contact Allie at (828) 877-3106
Our
Fall 2012 River Clean-Up was a huge sucess!
MANY thanks
to this Spring's River Clean-Up Sponsors!
We
could not have done it without you!
Transylvania
County Solid Waste- Generously supplied us with dumpsters
to put the trash in!
4-Rent
Inc- Furnished all the tables and chairs for the hungry
volunteers to eat on!
Jarrett
Brothers Inc- Donated a glacier-sized amount of ice so we
could provide cool beverages to our volunteers!
Bracken
Mountain Bakery- Provided delicious, trays of cookies!
Blue Ridge
Bakery- Provided the wonderful Pasta salad to accompany
lunch.
Subway-
Donated Veggie Subs for all our hard working vegetarians who
couldn't enjoy the donation by;
Everett Farms-
Very generously provided fresh, local beef hamburger patties
And last,
but definitely not least,
First
Citizen's Bank- Provided all the water to keep our volunteers
hydrated!
