Community Clean-Up Day in Centre County

Community Clean-Up Day in Centre County
By Michael Hermann; Lizard Tracks, Centre Daily Times, April 29, 1999

On Saturday, May 1st, (1999) the Centre Region community is getting together to clean up the great outdoors. This is the first time multiple organizations and communities have joined forces for a regional approach to community clean up projects and I think it’s a great idea. The opportunity to make a difference on a local level is enjoyable for all the volunteers and it makes a wonderful family outing.

I remember when I was 10 years old and had my first taste of a community clean up project. This was before the recycling movement and most folks thought streams were a perfect place to dump trash. We had so much fun pulling out bottles, tires and television sets from our local park that we never considered it hard labor, which it certainly was. I loved this task oriented project which felt like a giant treasure hunt. More importantly, it helped to change my perception of where trash ends up, where trash belongs and how my behavior could make my neighborhood a better place to live.

Families are the best place to begin teaching ideas of community awareness and responsible behavior concerning litter. When you join a clean up effort you see firsthand where those small scraps of trash end up. Contrary to popular belief, most trash isn’t biodegradable in the proper sense. The small pieces all add up, such as cellophane wrappers and cigarettes, and they add up in alarming quantities.
I’ve seen the enemy and it is us. I suspect most folks don’t consider it littering when they toss out a cigarette butt at a red light. Some people dump their entire ashtrays in parking lots. I watched people who were anxious to listen to a new CD in their car but thought the cellophane wrapper belonged out the window. Another driver was blissfully unaware of the seemingly endless ticker tape parade of plastic and paper trash blowing from the bed of his truck.

Where do they think this stuff ends up? Obviously not in their cars which seems to be the priority concern. Instead it blows into our yards, our parks and our streams. Littering appears to be a hopeless byproduct of our incredibly wasteful, self destructive but supposedly advanced society.

Would you like to make a difference? Take your family to one of these community volunteer projects on Saturday. The people that get involved in picking up trash will be less likely to tolerate those who perpetuate the problem. Besides, it’s really a lot of fun, honest!
Centre Region Parks and Recreation, the ClearWater Conservancy and the Mount Nittany Conservancy are all sponsoring clean up efforts. All you need to do is show up and lend a hand. You should dress accordingly; wear sturdy shoes, tough gloves and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty.

Centre Region Parks and Recreation is organizing over a dozen groups to clean up several public parks. Among those are Lederer, Sunset, Holmes Foster and Tudek just to list a few. They need volunteers to sweep paths, pick up loose branches and gather trash. The time slot is 8:30 to noon. Call Denee Sudano at 231-3071 for a complete listing of parks and work crews to join.

The ClearWater Conservancy is focusing on Spring Creek from Boalsburg to Bellefonte. They are also cleaning roadside areas such as Jo Hayes Vista and the Pennsylvania Military Museum. For those of you who want more ambitious tasks they have selected specific sinkholes to excavate. These sinkholes become small archeological digs because they have been used as local dumps for centuries. The time slot is 8 AM to noon and there are five meeting places. Call 237-0400 to find out which project you can volunteer for.

The Mount Nittany Conservancy is sponsoring the clean up of Mount Nittany from noon to 4 PM. The meeting place is the trailhead at the top of Mount Nittany Road in Lemont. Free bottled water from Aqua Penn will be provided. Because Mount Nittany is sacred to so many people I’m glad to say there won’t be much trash to pick up, but it makes a nice excuse to hike the mountain if you haven’t done so in a while.

The Rockview State Correctional Institution inmates will be removing trash and debris from sections of Spring Creek that are not public access. No citizen volunteers are allowed to join this work crew but it’s outstanding that Rockview inmates have joined the effort.
If organized groups don’t appeal to you there are many ways you can help as an individual. Store owners can steam clean their sidewalks and clean up their loading dock areas. Hikers and cyclists can pick up the cans and bottles that end up alongside our state forest roads and accumulate at trailhead parking lots. Most importantly, as a community, we can all keep this trash from ending up there in the first place by being more responsible for our own actions.

Michael Hermann is the creator of the Purple Lizard Recreational Map of State College and has been exploring local trails since 1979.