Biogen Idec sent bus loads of volunteers to Jordan Lake for their annual We Care Deeply days of community service. About 100 came on October 5 and another 85 on October 12.

The first group cleaned over 1 mile of shoreline on Wilderness Island opposite Robeson Creek.

The second group cleaned another 0.5 miles on the east side of the lake near the B. Everett Jordan dam. All together, nearly 500 bags of trash, enough to fill two dumpster, and 112 tires were removed.

75 volunteers showed up our annual community-wide volunteer cleanup on Saturday, Oct. 13th as part of NC Big Sweep. The target area was a 2-mile stretch of heavily trashed shoreline at the New Hope Overlook State Recreation Area.

The State Park here includes two beautiful trails covering 8 miles with great views to the shoreline along the New Hope Channel as well as two, walk-in camping areas. A huge amount of trash is marring the beauty of this special place. Most comes from heavy rainfall events that bring trash down the Haw River from as far away as Greensboro.

Shederick Mole, Superintendent of the Jordan Lake State Park, opened gated roads so volunteers would not have to walk so far. Walkers moved 310 bags of trash and 55 tires to the shoreline to be ferried by volunteer boaters and off loaded at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ramp.

Chatham County’s Solid Waste & Recycle Division provided dumpsters and disposal of trash. Bridgestone through its Community Cleanup Support, assisted locally by Liberty Tire, will recycle these and other tires collected by CJL volunteers in recent events free of charge.

Members of the local U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary gave communication support. The Corps of Engineers brought two boats and more were provided by 20 members of the BassPack Club at NCSU. Paul Owens, president of the BassPack, said after the event that “It is really awesome to see all the trash and tires removed from a lake that all of us at the BassPack fish all the time.”

Amante Gourmet Pizza of Cary donated lasagna and garlic bread to feed our volunteers after several hours of hard work.

Our community-wide event followed six others this Fall organized by us through requests from NC Geocachers, Urogenix, Immanuel Temples SDA Pathfinders, GlaxoSmithKline and Biogen Idec (two groups). In all, 380 volunteers removed 1250 bags of trash and 390 tires.

Since CJL began in 2009, 1,600 volunteers have removed 6,000 bags of trash, enough to fill about 20 large dumpsters, and 2,700 tires from 14 miles of shoreline. Much of it represents a 30-year legacy dating back to the creation of the lake.

Unfortunately, these now cleaned shorelines will once again accumulate trash until littering and illegal dumping in the 1,700 square miles of the Haw River watershed upstream can be controlled. We will be revisiting the clean sections after the next heavy rainfall to report to you what happens!

Biogen Idec and Community-At-Large Clean More Miles of Shoreline