RIVER RESCUE
Officials prep for massive weekend volunteer effort
Christine Hunt stood in the parking lot of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s boat ramp near Lookout Valley on Wednesday, preparing for the afternoon ahead.
With two boats and about 10 people, Hunt’s crew was tasked with getting a head start on Saturday’s Tennessee River Rescue.
“Just looking around, you’ll see a lot of junk,” said Hunt, the Tennessee Aquarium’s lead horticulturist. “Look, there’s two pieces of aluminum right there.” And so it began.
By Saturday afternoon, those two littered soda cans will be accompanied by a projected 17 dumpsters full of trash, collected from the river and its banks by an estimated 800 volunteers across three counties.
“It just started out with some citizens wanting to get something started,” said Hunt, a long-time Tennessee River Rescue leader. “Then local businesses jumped on board. It’s a real community effort.”
Groups from schools, businesses, civic organizations,
churches and others will spend the morning with gloves, trash bags, nets and other devices to help them fish out the vast array of garbage that makes its way into the river.
The event is, of course, about picking up trash, Hunt said. But she and Tennessee River Gorge Trust outreach director Sarah Quattrochi also see another purpose.
“It is definitely about making our home a cleaner place and cleaning our waterways,” said, Quattrochi, who will oversee TRGT’s rescue zone from the Suck Creek Road boat ramp. “But it’s a very family-friendly volunteer day. My 10-year-old will be out there, and it really kind of helps kids see what people do to clutter the natural environment with litter, and then what others do to come behind them, take responsibility and clean it up.”
Hunt said she sees a similar scene nearly every year. A young person will show up looking lethargic over the idea of spending part of their Saturday picking up trash. Then, things change. “They come out, they’re kind of grumbling, and then what happens is they kind of get back in touch with nature,” Hunt said. “They’re on the river, they’re realizing how pretty it is, they’ll see some animals and feel like they’ve helped. It gets people back in touch with the river.
“Those young people who come out and clean it up, they’ll never be litterbugs.”