Earth Day Cleanup 2009

Over 175 volunteers of all ages assembled at 8:30 am ,Saturday April 25 to tackle an enormous clean up project in the Big River and Lake Mishnock area of West Greenwich.

After sign up conducted by Terry Gray, five teams led by Bob Zulegar, Peter Gengler, Joe Unsworth, Dan Novak, and Ken Brown led their respective teams to locations in the Big River area along Division road, Route 3, and Lake Mishnock.

Participants included families, mountain bikers, cub and boy scout troops, and a group of students from URI.

Over 5 huge dumpsters were filled with every conceivable type of trash from tires to bedsprings. A rusted car and many tires were among the items collected and disposed of.

Ken Brown and his grandaughter, Emma, cleaned up the Lake Mishnock area

Sandy Bockes, the Conservation commission secretary also found treasures including a new pair of non glare hunters gogles and deer antlers.

At noon volunteers gathered at the Big River Inn where prizes were raffled off and lunch was served.

Paul Kaltschnee stated that he was "amazed that so many people worked so hard and gave up their time again this year to make the environment a better place to live"

This 13th annual earth day cleanup event was sponsored by the West Greenwich Conservation Commission, Lake Mishnock Preservation Association, New England Mountain Bikers Association, Amgen and the Rhode Island Water Resources Board.
Below are a few pictures taken by Paul Kaltschnee. More pictures can be found here www.wgtownri.org