Volunteers remove trash from one of three coves they cleaned on Wheeler Lake of the Tennessee River in Joe Wheeler State Park in Rogersville, AL.
Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful’s ‘Tennessee River Grand Slam Cleanup Series’ wrapped up this past weekend with an additional 6,460 lbs. of trash removed at two North Alabama cleanups.
On Friday, April 9, a total of eight volunteers on Wheeler Lake removed 3,345 lbs. of trash in Joe Wheeler State Park and nine volunteers removed 3,115 lbs. in Muscle Shoals, AL on Saturday, April 10, from Wilson Lake.
Despite having to relocate a cleanup last minute to Wheeler Lake due to flood conditions on the intended Pickwick Lake, the numbers were still quite impressive. The volunteers at the two cleanups in Alabama removed:
Volunteers on Fort Loudoun Lake in Knoxville, Tenn. stand with a port-a-john they removed from shallow waters.
· 218 bags of trash
· 19 tires
· 43 feet of barge line
· 369 lbs. of random plastic
· 48 square feet of Styrofoam
· 10 lbs. of scrap metal
· 4.5 55-gallon barrels
· 6 trash cans
· 2 toilet seats
· 1 mini fridge
· 1 television set
“These two cleanups both suffered location and scheduling adjustments due to weather, but the results are a testament to what can be accomplished when volunteers are committed to making their community a better place,” said Kathleen Gibi, Executive Director for Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful. “By working with us through the challenges, our volunteers and our partners at Living Lands & Waters made a three ton difference for the Tennessee River, which is something to be really proud of.”
Gibi said that the City of Florence, Lauderdale County, and Joe Wheeler State Park all stepped up to roll with the last-minute changes needed to work around storms at each site, each offering local sponsorships and services for the cleanup to be possible.
In all, the trash removed by 75 volunteers in the Grand Slam Cleanup Series totaled at over 11 tons:
2021 GRAND SLAM CLEANUP SERIES TOTALS
March 20 Roane County, TN Watts Bar Lake 9,426 lbs. removed
March 21 Knoxville/Louisville, TN Fort Loudoun Lake 6,286 lbs. removed
April 9 Rogersville, AL Wheeler Lake 3,345 lbs. removed
April 10 The Shoals, AL Wilson Lake 3,115 lbs. removed
22,172 lbs. removed
Volunteers in The Shoals, AL post with one of their trash piles collected on Wilson Lake of the Tennessee River.
This cleanup series now puts Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful (KTNRB) more than half-way in their ambitious goal of removing 100,000 lbs. of trash from the Tennessee River watershed this year. To date, more than 200 volunteers have removed 56,698 lbs. of trash at KTNRB cleanups in 2021.
The Grand Slam Cleanup Series has become an annual tradition for Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful, hosting cleanups in partnership with national nonprofit, Living Lands & Waters (LL&W), who brings five 30-foot work boats to supplement KTNRB’s boat. The series cleanups are held on four different lakes of the Tennessee River.
“The cleanup weekend just held in Alabama was filled with sunshine, laughter, and a lot of trash!” said Dan Breidenstein of Living Lands & Waters, who also serves as Board Vice President for KTNRB. “It was awesome to meet and work alongside all the hardworking volunteers that came out to make such a positive impact on their community and the river.”
The cleanup series has national, state, and regional sponsors to make the cleanups possible. Series sponsors include the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Tennessee Dept. of Transportation (TDOT), Keep Tennessee Beautiful (KTnB), and Keep America Beautiful (KAB). Representatives from each sponsor group attended at least one event in the Grand Slam Cleanup Series themselves.
This Tennessee River Grand Slam Cleanup is part of a nationwide effort known as the Great American Cleanup®, a signature program of national nonprofit Keep America Beautiful®. Through this far-reaching effort, which takes place from March 20 through June 20, the Keep America Beautiful national network of nearly 700 community-based affiliates host over 15,000 events and activities, engaging more than 500,000 volunteers and participants.
“The Grand Slam Cleanup Series is a glimpse at the momentum and energy building around this river,” said Gibi. “With big and small efforts, we can make a huge, collective impact for our precious Tennessee River, as demonstrated by our volunteers over the past month.”
To learn about upcoming Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful cleanups, visit www.KeepTNRiverBeautiful.org.
Volunteers on Watts Bar Lake in Roane County, Tenn. stand with one of the many trash piles they collected.