Rivers Alive coming to Rockmart this weekend
Every year, volunteers don shoes they don’t mind getting dirty, put on a pair of gloves and grab a trash bag to ensure when local residents want to get into local creeks and streams, they do so without the fear of being in dirty water.
That’s the goal of the annual Rivers Alive organized around the country by local organizations like Keep Polk Beautiful with the idea in mind to clean up after people who litter, which ends up via the flow of run-off and over time the bottles, cans and wrappers go into watersheds like Euharlee Creek.
Randy Cook, Executive Director of Keep Polk Beautiful, said this upcoming Saturday’s event at Seaborn Jones Park in Rockmart is a much needed remedy to help keep the Euharlee clean.
“We’re so excited about Rivers Alive this year,” Cook said. “I think our numbers are going to be great… we’ve got lots of scouts, lots of churches coming.”
Cook is asking that individuals join in the efforts with groups already committed to coming out on Saturday morning at 8 a.m. at the park. He said volunteers will start
heading out at 9 a.m. A limited number of t-shirts are also available this year as well for participants who volunteer.
“Early arrivals will have the opportunity to have Bojangle’s before we go out,” Cook said.
He added that Camp Antioch’s Janice Stewart will also be helping out during this weekend’s event by providing activities for youth not quite big enough to help clean up trash.
Cook said the efforts will go out past the covered bridge up and downstream, seeking to clean trash from areas where city officials can’t get to.
“Rockmart does a fantastic job of keeping that park and that creek in fantastic shape,” Cook said. “But we’re going to hopefully go a little further in both directions and clean out not only the creek, but in and around it. We hope to have a great cleanup day.”
Those who can’t make this weekend’s event need to remember a first step they can take on their own to make Polk County a more beautiful place without much effort. Simply put, stop letting trash fly out the back of pickup trucks, and from windows of cars.
Other efforts individuals can take up on their own to make sure they aren’t contributing to trash polluting local streams include simple things, like making sure any garbage in vehicles stays there and is bagged up tightly, or just being more conscious about where used items are thrown away.
Cook said too that just having access to areas like Euharlee Creek make a difference too, since those who use the waterways are more like to pick up what trash they do see along the shorelines and carry it away.
“It’s just less garbage and litter because of access to the creek,” Cook said. “We’re working right now to do just that on the west side of the county on Cedar Creek so we can have an
access point.”
Without those access points, it can be difficult to maintain trash collection anywhere in Polk County, and that has impacts downstream for those who use the creeks elsewhere for drinking water. The more trash is in the water, the more likely it contains materials people don’t want going into their bodies, and thus requires municipalities to treat the water coming into their systems.
Unless they have direct access to sources of water coming right from the ground, as is the case for Cedartown for instance that has Big Spring as its source for water.
Mostly it comes down to individual action when making positive change to better the community.
“There’s a mentality about trash too,” Cook added. “You’ve got to stop littering.”
The organization on the state level is working on a new slogan for an antilitter campaign that still has some kinks to iron out, but the main idea remains the same for Cook and
others who work to curb litter.
People who want to live in a clean state have to make sure they aren’t part of the problem, and pick up after themselves and sometimes others.
It also takes education at a young age to instill positive behaviors when it comes to garbage. Cook started a Critter Litter program with triplet goats in visits to classrooms across the county last year, and looks to continue it this year (without the triplets, since they’ve grown up.)
Cook is also working on a program to get individuals and groups involved in cleaning trash out of green spaces, which through the action of water running downhill to streams and creeks brings trash along with the run-off.
“We really want to focus on making our green spaces great,” Cook said.
Find out more about helping with Keep Polk Beautiful’s efforts this weekend by calling 678246-1083 or sending Cook an e-mail at rcook@cedartowngeorgia.gov.