Black Friday Trash Cleanup Great Success

On very short notice, we invited members of meetup.com/helpcleanjordanlake to volunteer for a trash cleanup on Black Friday morning. We missed our chance to register this event with REI's #optoutside as we had done several years ago. But the idea was the same-- take a walk outdoors rather than in a shopping mall and feel good about taking care of our local environment.

The response was fantastic--22 adults and 2 school kids! Sunny sky and comfortable temperature gave a boost to enthusiasm.

We walked a 1/4 mile along the Ebenezer Church Trail at Jordan Lake State Recreation Area to clean two coves where trash from heavy rains had built up. Most of this trash comes from the Haw River watershed. It is flushed down the Haw River and after reaching the lake, is carried more than 5 miles northward by current and wind when the flood gates at the dam are closed after big rainfalls.

Our hard working volunteers removed 37 bags of trash and 5 tires (not all shown in photo) from 0.3 miles in under 2 hours! That included hauling the stuff hundreds of yards through the woods back to a service road and the Ebenezer Church Beach parking lot.

Well done everyone!