Earth Day Rahway River Clean-up–Sat., April 24, 2021
All volunteers are invited to celebrate Earth Day 2021 with Boy Scout Troop 330 and members of the Rahway River Watershed Association in a clean-up of the Rahway River on Saturday, April 24th (with a rain date of Sunday, April 25th). The clean-up will focus on areas upstream and downstream of the Bloodgoods Pond Dam at Winfield Park, New Jersey. Please plan to stop by the parking area adjacent to the waterfall of the Rahway River by the dam at Winfield Park, NJ at 8:45 a.m. to register, pick up bags, gloves, bottled water and snacks, and receive safety information. Folks should feel free to travel to any part of the river where they would like to perform cleanup activities but we specifically will ask folks to work in small groups for safety purposes with folks socially distanced and wearing masks. The team working registration will provide suggestions on areas with large volumes of floatable debris.
Cleaning up a river and park area is a great way to celebrate Earth Day and if you haven’t participated in an event like this before, you will find it invigorating, and you will feel good about what you have accomplished…it is also fun and educational…especially for scouts and young adults as they always find something interesting.
The clean-up will generally be between 9 a.m. – 12 noon, but any amount of time or effort that folks can volunteer is appreciated. There is always a large volume of floatable debris to pick up. Over the 20+ years this cleanup has occurred thousands of folks have participated, including girl scouts, cub scouts, boy scouts, fishermen, local activists and citizens, and we pulled some amazing things from the river.
All participants should wear jeans, long-sleeved shirts, gloves and boots, and please wear a mask. Waders are welcome for folks who like to get a little wet. Each participant should bring a standard 5-gallon carry bucket with a handle (put your name on the bottom)…this makes for easy carrying of “stuff” for transfer to the large garbage bags. When we complete the event we do a basic inventory of the “big stuff” that we removed….and within approximately 24 hours Union County Parks removes and disposes of all the trash. There is no RSVP required but if you need more information or think you will attend please let us know by e-mail at rivercleanup@comcast.net.
