Fall is in the air and we all know what that means. It is time for N.C. Big Sweep, the statewide effort to clean our waterways.
Last year, statewide volunteers retrieved everything from cups and cans to lawn chairs and beds. “Litter hurts everyone,” said Rita Williams, First Citizens Bank branch operations support analyst and N.C. Big Sweep chairman. “It affects our economy, our health, and our wildlife.”
In Polk County, we all know that the Green River Gorge and Lake Adger are major assets in terms of natural beauty and tourism dollars. The tens of thousands of citizens and visitors that visit the Green River Gorge however often leave debris and litter along the river and the adjacent roadsides. Once a day each year, a small but dedicated group of volunteers put in a few morning hours to cleanup the accumulated trash, for the benefit of all of Polk County. Once again, we are calling on the local citizens to come out and join together in the scenic beauty of the Green River on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 4.
To get involved, Polk County Big Sweep will have two efforts on the Green River. The Lake Adger cleanup will be from boats, concentrating on trash collected in coves. Anyone interested in helping out can contact Jamie Davidson at lakeadger.lamc@yahoo.com. The Green River cleanup will begin at 9 a.m. from the Fishtop Access parking area on Green River Cove Road. Please contact Mark Byington at 828-859-6874 or go to the Big Sweep website at www.ncbigsweep.org to learn more.
N.C. Big Sweep, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, was originally founded in 1987 as Beach Sweep, an initiative to remove unsightly and harmful litter from the state’s coastline. It expanded inland in 1989 and was renamed Big Sweep, becoming the nation’s first statewide waterway cleanup. Its mission expanded in 2002 from litter-free waters to a litter-free environment. More than 350,000 Big Sweep volunteers have retrieved over 11.5 million pounds of debris from North Carolina’s environment since it was founded in 1987.

-article submitted
by Mark Byington