The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF - www.cbf.org) has been conducting annual Clean the Bay Days in and around the Bay area for many years and more recently is also reaching out to headwater areas like Staunton, to encourage us to clean OUR local waters, before they get to the Bay. During the upcoming first week of June, FOMR is joining local volunteers from the City of Staunton's Lewis Creek Watershed Advisory Committee, Shenandoah Green, JMU Valley Scholars, Tiger Solar (formerly Altenergy), and Skyline Rotary Club, to form a combined 2022 Staunton Clean the Bay Day Team. Lewis Creek the urban tributary of Middle River.
Want to join the team? Pick a day below to volunteer!
Thursday, June 2, 9am-12pm Asylum Creek (Greenville Ave. area)
Starting at Bessie Weller Elementary, and walking/wading downstream to The Villages. We'll then all walk back across Greenville Avenue around noon, and gather informally for lunch on the patio at Wright's Dairy Rite. This cleanup event will initially be staffed by JMU Valley Scholars, with their chaperones, plus anyone else who wants to volunteer.
Friday, June 3, 2022, 9am-12pm
Starting at Columbia Gas on Coalter Street, and walking/wading downstream past Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind (VSDB), and also starting at New Hope Road at Commerce Street, and walking/wading back upstream by VSDB. This clean-up will initially be staffed by Friends of the Middle River (FOMR) volunteers, plus Tiger Solar Installers, plus anyone else who wants to volunteer.
Saturday, June 4, 9am-12pm
Starting near the entrance to Gypsy Hill Park, near the bandstand, and walking/wading upstream throughout Gypsy Hill Park, this clean-up will initially be staffed by Skyline Rotary Club, plus anyone else who wants to volunteer. We'll then all gather immediately after, around noon, at the western end pavilion, near State Farm's office on Churchville Avenue, for a Staunton Team picnic, organized by Skyline Rotary Club.
All teams will need trash “picker-uppers” and a few "data scribes." Three-to-five folks picking up trash will be joined by a “scribe” who is armed with a clipboard and a clean-up datasheet, recording what trash is picked up with simple tally marks on the datasheets. All of our trash collection data will then be tabulated and uploaded to regional and national clean-up data websites.
Please register in advance on the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's "Clean the Bay Day" website HERE On the last question of the signup form, specify which of the three Staunton cleanups you wish to attend. Thanks!