Boardman River Clean Sweep - 2010 - June 5th-2010

The event this year was a bit harder to do from a planning perspective but it was,
none the less, a great success with about 75-80 people showing up to work.

I had more help this year from others than ever before. Steve Somers and his very
sweet wife, Patti, just took the picnic away from me and it was wonderful to be freed
from that burden. We had fresh, hot food and it was terrific. Well done!

Jocelyn Trepte and Bill Hyslop took over the T-shirt order from Britten Banners.
All I did was do the back design and pick them up.

With only a few exceptions, everyone got to their assigned locations on time and most
didn't get lost.

Rachel Goodman organized and did the recycle work like an old time trooper.
Thanks, Rachel!

We took a ton of stuff out of and from the banks of the river. All sorts of unusual trash was
found and much more than we expected to find. We found a boom box, a huge 18 wheeler
tire, which David Fred floated out on a raft he found, and many other tires, several pallets,
an old garden cart, 3 plastic lawn chairs, and 1/2 a fiberglass canoe.

The raffle yielded a net of 1940.00 which will be shared by the KHS 4-H and the GTCD.
Great job, Steve Largent.

Our donated digital cameras worked pretty well and several people brought their personal
cameras to help out.

So, all in all, the 6th annual BRCS event came off pretty well. I was pleased.

AND IT DIDN'T RAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To see photos of the BRCS look on the Homepage link to All Photos at the bottom of the page.

Written By Norm Fred

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National Cherry Festival -BRCS Cleanup Event

Friday, July 9 - BRCS NCF Cleanup

BRCS NCF Trip Report

This trip is a wonderful way to see downtown Traverse City from a new perspective. Traverse City may
be a place familiar to us, but it sure seems different when seen from the perspective of traveling through it
via the Boardman River. The 12 of us (Maureen Anthony, D and N Fred, Frank Lahde, Tracie Lord, Bob Martel,
M and M Puska, F and J Swartz, Steve Somers and Henry Eckhardt) started from Hull Park near the library,
porataged the dam at Union Street, and finished in Grand Traverse Bay at the Holiday Inn. We had two tandem
canoes and eight kayaks. The weather was very nice with warm temps and very little wind.

This was a Boardman River Clean Sweep clean-up event in conjunction with the National Cherry Festival who
helped by removing all the trash we found for free, and we certainly found a lot of trash. Several of us were unable
to leave our boats without help, we were so jammed in by full garbage bags. In addition to all the bottles, cans, jars
and cups, we found an old chair with a saggy bottom, a flower arrangement, a large barrel and flashing light used
as a highway marker, and a size 13 pair of paint-spattered work boots. We were pleased to notice that the boots
were marked "waterproof".

There were surprisingly a lot of people using the river with us today in boats and tubes. This is something that we
have really never seen before on this section. At the second drop off spot Norm noticed some young ladies in tubes
and got a few pictures. They were excited that their pictures will be posted and asked for the website name.
At the same place Frank got his toenail caught under the canoe and had an "OWIE" but it was feeling better
by the end of the trip.

In an over-enthusiastic attempt to chase an errant coke can, Judy lost her paddle, which was graciously retrieved
by Maureen. Three of us missed the spot where we were supposed to leave the trash and took it all the way to the
Holiday Inn, where we took out. That trash was taken to the Bethlehem Lutheran CHurch where it was deposited.
The waterfront staff at the hotel were very helpful and loaded all of our boats on our cars for us and are to be
commended.

Also, Fred found a tire in the lake above the dam. Norm and Frank grabbed it and left it in the parking lot of
Mike Hubbell's Law office near the Governmental Center. After the event, Norm took the tire to Junior's Tires
on 8th Street where they recycled it for free.

David and Bob found a wallet near the confluence of the Boardman and Kid's Creek. There was no money in it but
lots of ID. Norm is attempting to get it back to its owner. They also found a traffic cone in deep water that they
retrieved with the spear. Tracie found a Cadillac hubcap from the 40s and Marlene spotted a pink brink that Steve
couldn't believe was in the river. He said, "Anything that's pink doesn't belong in the river." and he got it out of there.
How about Salmon Steve? "Sure, if it's not in a can!" would be his reply.

It was a fun day but we are always shocked at the amount of trash that accumulates in this section in the summer
in such a short time since this same section was cleaned just a month ago.

To see photos of the trip look on the Homepage link 2010 NCF at the bottom of the page.

Written by Judy Swartz and Norm Fred

This page Copyright © 2010 - Norman R. Fred & BRCleanSweep.org