Riverkeeper's Spring Shoreline Cleanup

4.18.09

As Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper's Volunteer Coordinator, one of my many jobs is to organize events such as the Spring Shoreline Cleanup that took place on April 18, 2009 from 9am to noon. Before the day, there was a lot of work to be done including: training site captains, ordering and picking up supplies, recruiting volunteers, sending out reminder emails, updating the Riverkeeper website, requesting donations, and much more. Keeping all of the site captains and volunteers organized was quite a challenge at times.

In the end the event turned out to be a great success! We had over 1300 volunteers turn out to pick up litter at over 35 shoreline sides in the Buffalo Niagara region. I should mention that over 1600 community members pre-registered for the event which made this year's spring cleanup the biggest one in Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper history. Besides volunteer time, quite a few organizations donated supplies and grant money to make this event possible. Some of our sponsors included New Era Caps (each of the 35 site captains received a free hat for there service), M&T Bank, Target, TOPS Friendly Markets, Walmart, Keep American Beautiful, and American Rivers. Numerous other local businesses and organizations rallied their workers together in order to tackle garbage at a specific sites. Some of these companies included: Olmsted Park's Conservancy, Bank of America, Fisher-Price, Rich Products, Adirondack Club, Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) members, many student groups, and others.

The cleanup wouldn't not have been a success without each volunteer's willingness to remove unsightly debris from the local waterways. I was astonished by the before/after pictures of several cleanup sites. My personal Spring Shoreline Cleanup pictures are shown below. However, if you would like to see more please click here. Also, quite a bit of interesting trash was picked up including a craw-dad trap and a cat scratching post. To see what else participants found, click here and scroll down.

I even persuaded some of my good friends (and parents) to help out. They were stationed at Amherst Veterans Canal Park, and from the looks of their pictures, they had a great time. :)

I arrived at Gallagher Beach around 8am along with the rest of the AmeriCorps crew.

The mission: to clean this beach before 12pm.

Mark Lazara (the CEO of Western New York AmeriCorps), Congressman Brian Higgins, and Julie O'Neil (executive director of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper) spoke to us before the cleanup began.

Some of the members of Western New York AmeriCorps

From left to right: my supervisor (Kerri Bentkowski), my co-worker (Krissy), the CEO of Western New York AmeriCorps (Mark Lazara), the executive director of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper (Julie O'Neil), and me.

Mark and Julie speaking with a local news station.

Cleaning Gallagher Beach

Shelley and Alyssa were snoozing on the job.

Someone had left a tarp behind and my mother thought it would be a perfect dress.

Since I coordinated the event, I roamed around to all of the sites. Unfortunately, I did not have time to visit Amherst Veteran's Canal Park where all my friends and family were working. When I saw my father at the picnic, he said he was "pooped" because he rolled so many tires.

The Amherst Veteran's Canal Park Crew from right to left: Shelley, Janie, Andy, Bill, Nate, my father Jim, my mother Debbie, Katherine, and I don't know this person's name. Alyssa is sitting in the front.

Many volunteers showed up for the appreciation cookout afterward.

Some local business owners relaxing after a hard morning of picking up litter and debris.

Here is Jim, one of our Riverwatch Captains, serving hot dogs. He insisted that I take a break for a little while. At this point, I had been running around all day.

That evening Riverkeeper was also in charge of organizing the Buffalo River Boomdays Festival. The celebration took place at Dug's Dive on Fuhrman Boulevard near the water. Many people (even my friends) showed up to celebrate the removal of the ice boom from the river. There was food, drinks, a live band, and fireworks. Clean up volunteers got in for free and also received a free drink. Most of the people in the picture above are either Riverkeeper staff or board members. Front row from left to right: Tricia, me, Kelly, Margaret, Krissy, Jill, and I don't know this person. Top row from left to right: I don't know this person, Kerri, Julie, Larry, Greg, and I don't know this person.

Side Notes: Stephanie, to answer your question about the Ice Boom (see comments), an Ice Boom is a floating structure made from large wooden poles that have been chained together. Every winter the United States Coast Guard puts them across the Niagara River to protect the hydroelectric intake structures from large chucks of ice. According to Wikipedia, the Ice Boom was first placed across the Niagara River in 1964. Buffalo Boomdays festival is important because it marks the removal of the Ice Boom from the river; and therefore, the end of winter.