I will keep this fairly brief for now because we just arrived home not long ago. The turnout and support of the first Vedder River Cleanup was beyond our expectation today. Normally, for the January cleanup, we would see around 60 or so participants. Today, we had 130 enthusiastic volunteers who spent around 3 hours cleaning from the Chilliwack Salmon Hatchery to the Hwy 1 Bridge! The directors of CVRCC would like to thank and congratulate everyone for their hard work.
Before everyone headed out to the cleanup at 9:30am, a short presentation took place to recognize our five new river adopting groups. They are Pacific Developmental Pathway Ltd., Chilliwack Fish and Game Protective Association, Fraser Valley Regional District Parks, Chilliwack River Valley Ratepayers Association, Abbey Therapeutic Services. Doug Wilson from Fraser Valley Regional District presented our newly made signs to these groups. The signs will be posted up at their adopted sections very soon. The Adopt-a-River program is free, but we require adopting groups to attend our four cleanups per year.
Between 9:30am and 12:30pm, participants were assigned to different sections of the river to do the cleanup. The number of people assigned to each group depended on how messy the area was (our directors surveyed the area yesterday).
I was out with a small group of volunteers and we managed to sweep through sections of the river bank between Wilson Road and Tamahi. Most of the river banks were very clean, but most likely due to the recent high flood we had. The parking area, trails were a different story. Litters were scattered all over the place as usual. In the end, our group managed to collect around 8 bags of garbage as well as two bags of recyclable items.
One alarming trend was the number of abandoned car tires that were collected today. Volunteers also reported that parking lots such as the one at Lickman Road, were especially dirty.
We would like to thank Tim Horton's for donating dozens of donuts and coffee to reward our volunteers. We also like to thank KMS in Coquitlam for donating two dozen pickup tools, which made our older volunteers' life easier today. As usual, the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve was once again being a great host, otherwise we would not have a centralized meeting area. Finally, without the support of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, City of Chilliwack and Fraser Valley Regional District, our program would not be as successful as it is today.
This is certainly a great start of 2005. We're very overwhelmed by your support. If you continue to attend our cleanups, we will work hard to keep the Chilliwack Vedder River pleasant for all recreational users.
Photos from today
Tim Horton's donut and coffee station with our display.
New river adopting groups.
Filling up the stink mobile!
Loading up the Fraser Valley Region District truck!
Why are these volunteers so happy?
(Provided by Pepsitrev)
Still very happy.... (Provided by Pepsitrev)
A small portion of all garbage collected.
More garbage...
More photos to come later.
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Topic: 1st 2005 Vedder River Cleanup Summary (Read 7983 times)