On Saturday, twenty-nine volunteers—including eight teenagers and folks approaching 80–showed up at St. Stephen’s Church parking lot in Unionville for a “Project Clean Stream” event to pick up trash on the roadside and ditches…trash that was all headed downhill to the Miles River. The event was organized by the Wye/Miles Watershed Advisory Board, a local volunteer group within ShoreRivers.
A huge success!
The original plan was to cover 1.8 miles along Unionville Road. In fact, enough volunteers stepped up that ShoreRivers was able to cover 5.1 miles of roads, nearly three times the plan! Volunteers pulled out approximately five-hundred pounds of beer cans, plastic bags, empty cups-straws-and-lids, old car parts, discarded appliances, boxes, and a few wine bottles. We hit all of Unionville Road (i.e., from Rt. 33 through the village to Todd’s Corner), Miles River Road west to Marango, Tunis Mills Road west to Gregory, and Bluff’s Island Road west to Gregory, covering all but a few pockets. See photos enclosed.
Evidence suggests that Bud Light is the preferred beverage of litterers in our community.
Thanks to Easton Utilities for the “Men Working” signs (though 50% of the volunteers were women, of course); to the County Roads Department for hauling a BIG pile of bags to the landfill; to the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay for organizing this effort Statewide…but most especially to the ShoreRivers’ volunteers who devoted a few hours of their Saturday to protecting the Miles River and improving their community.
Also to the motorist who pulled over, got out and gave a volunteer a twenty-dollar bill “to put to the cause,” an unexpected donation indeed!
ShoreRivers is sponsoring additional Project Clean Steam events in coming weeks, including two in Talbot County on April 11th in Wye Mills and on April 24th at Easton Point. To volunteer or learn more about any of these events shore-wide, contact Laura Wood at [email protected].
Brenda Stone says
I know a lot of planning and work went into this project. Thanks to everyone to picked up trash that would have polluted our Miles River and on.