Homeless help in river cleanup
Lowell effort provides lunch, pay in exchange for work on Merrimack
To Joy, sleeping along the Merrimack River in a makeshift tent is not living — it’s surviving.
He and two friends, Jun and Em, reside at a homeless camp nestled in the treeline across from Pawtucket Boulevard in Lowell. Hammocks hanging on trees whip in the wind. Cooking pans and plastic food containers are strewn in the dirt. With bare, weather-worn hands, Joy adjusts a frayed blue tarp over his small tent.
“We survive day by day,” Joy said. Joy is a nickname, which seems apt because he is always smiling. All three men requested to be identified by their nicknames.
Over the last two weeks, members of the Methuen-based Clean River Project have teamed up with men like Em and Joy to collect litter from the riverbank and a handful of homeless camps along Pawtucket Boulevard.
“If we’re going to have a clean river, we’re going to have to work with the homeless on the banks,” said Clean River founder Rocky Morrison said.
The Methuen native launched the Clean River Project in 2005.
“I (saw) how polluted it (the river) was, and I wanted to do something,” he said.
In addition to pulling waste from the river, the crew regularly docks at homeless camps to deliver trash bags.
“It was piling up,” Morrison said of trash at homeless camps along the river. His team then returns to each camp to check on residents and collect the filled trash bags.
Around six years ago, Morrison began inviting homeless community members onto the boat to help clean the shoreline. He provides lunch for those who work on the boat, and pays them for their help.
On Friday, Em and Joy boarded the Clean River Project’s pontoon boat to work. Frigid water splashed onto the boat’s occupants. Morrison docked by a spot not far from Rynne Beach.
“Ready for action!” Clean River Project Marketing Manager Corey Silva said. Armed with black trash bags, Em, Joy, Silva and Donald Chenard, another Clean River employee, hustled off the boat.
The group rifled through fallen leaves to retrieve beer and soda cans, a pool noodle, a tennis ball and other trash. Silva pulled a Pepsi can from a patch of ice. “One way to keep it cold,” she joked.
Within minutes, the area was clear of debris. Then back to the boat it was, and off to the next location. The crew has pulled enough trash from the shoreline to fill over 100 trash bags this week, Morrison said.
“It’s the drinking water of the community,” he said. “The river is an asset and we need to take care of it.”
The Clean River Project initially started with an annual scavenger hunt organized by Morrison and his wife. Boaters were encouraged to collect as much trash as possible from the river, and a point system was devised for each type of trash. At the end, those with the most points received prizes from local businesses.
Now, the nonprofit collects debris from the river nearly year-round. Rain or shine, a team is on the water “until the ice pushes us out,” Morrison said.
Around 11:30 a.m. Friday,
Morrison boated Joy and Em back to their camp. They huddled around a weak campfire exuding the scent of smoke and ash. It is their only source of heat.
When the men recently ran out of firewood, they burned plastic crates to keep warm, Morrison said. While working on the shoreline, Joy and Em were able to collect sticks to fuel their campfire. On Friday, Silva brought homemade chicken noodle soup to the camps.
“I do anything I can to survive,” Joy said. “No matter what, we have each other,” he said of his friends.
“I think it (helping clean the Merrimack) gives them a sense of purpose,” Silva said.
When Joy and Em arrived back at camp, they asked Morrison about helping again the next day. “They never give up,” Morrison said with a smile.