By Larry Brooks
On
Saturday, September 19th, about 160 people along Scajaquada Creek joined
another 500 in Northern Erie County, 2,000 along Lake Erie’s shoreline,
and another 6,000 statewide, picking up litter and debris from area waterways.
Organized locally by Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper and the Great Lakes Beach
Sweep, and joined by volunteers around the world under the International Beach
Sweep organization, these citizens spent their sunny Saturday
morning improving the environment.
All year
long, litter flies out the windows and open beds of vehicles on roadways and
from open garbage totes and loosely-packed recycle bins. Then there’s careless
people, who intentionally throw litter where they finish with it. The wind
sweeps it up or it washes down the storm drains, and it very often winds up in
one of the waterways that make Western New York special.
The
things they throw! Shopping carts (over 20 along Scajaquada alone), smoking
paraphernalia, an engine block, a motorcycle at Squaw Island, bikes, I-pods,
cell phones, and a safe deposit box. It’s a disposable culture, one in which it’s
popular to think that “someone else will take care of it.” In addition to
picking up litter, one crew painted over graffiti, and another dug out
invasive plants.
So
people give up their time because they care–people from all walks of life,
young and old (three-year old Althea Gross and four-year-old Calvino Galbo were
signed up to help).
Both individuals and groups, such as UB, Buff State, Williamsville, Amherst, and South Park High Schools, along with businesses, such as the
Grant Amherst Business Association, roll up their sleeves and pitch arms
into what Riverkeeper’s Katy Brown calls “slimy and nasty and dirty” water to
make it cleaner. The effort is funded, in large part, by a generous grant
from the M & T Bank Foundation. Julie Barrett O’Neill, Executive Director
of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper says, “So many use the waterfront and care about
its future. The best ideas and fuel for its revitalization come from the people
who use it.”
It is a
semi-annual event for Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, and the Spring cleanup is
April 17th, 2010. Mark it on your calendars to sign up in January on their website.
Saturday, September 19th, about 160 people along Scajaquada Creek joined
another 500 in Northern Erie County, 2,000 along Lake Erie’s shoreline,
and another 6,000 statewide, picking up litter and debris from area waterways.
Organized locally by Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper and the Great Lakes Beach
Sweep, and joined by volunteers around the world under the International Beach
Sweep organization, these citizens spent their sunny Saturday
morning improving the environment.
long, litter flies out the windows and open beds of vehicles on roadways and
from open garbage totes and loosely-packed recycle bins. Then there’s careless
people, who intentionally throw litter where they finish with it. The wind
sweeps it up or it washes down the storm drains, and it very often winds up in
one of the waterways that make Western New York special.
things they throw! Shopping carts (over 20 along Scajaquada alone), smoking
paraphernalia, an engine block, a motorcycle at Squaw Island, bikes, I-pods,
cell phones, and a safe deposit box. It’s a disposable culture, one in which it’s
popular to think that “someone else will take care of it.” In addition to
picking up litter, one crew painted over graffiti, and another dug out
invasive plants.
people give up their time because they care–people from all walks of life,
young and old (three-year old Althea Gross and four-year-old Calvino Galbo were
signed up to help).
Grant Amherst Business Association, roll up their sleeves and pitch arms
into what Riverkeeper’s Katy Brown calls “slimy and nasty and dirty” water to
make it cleaner. The effort is funded, in large part, by a generous grant
from the M & T Bank Foundation. Julie Barrett O’Neill, Executive Director
of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper says, “So many use the waterfront and care about
its future. The best ideas and fuel for its revitalization come from the people
who use it.”
semi-annual event for Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, and the Spring cleanup is
April 17th, 2010. Mark it on your calendars to sign up in January on their website.