COVINGTON - Approximately 70 volunteers will be picking up litter this Saturday along the Ohio and Licking River banks in Covington. Toyota, the Northern Kentucky Sierra Club, Cub Scout Pack 721, Covington residents and Keep Covington Beautiful will be participating. The annual River Sweep is organized by the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission and has three locations in Covington where volunteers will focus their efforts: Waterfront Restaurant site, Greenup Street site (Licking River Point to Covington Landing and Licking River Greenway Trails. See www.keepcovingtonbeautiful.com for more details.
Solid Waste Coordinator Sheila Fields is this year's Site Coordinator for Kenton County. She says, "I am proud to serve this program. It is important to keep our river banks clean and free of debris, making them suitable for wildlife and public use. In addition to keeping the riverbanks clean, we hope that increased public exposure to the our rivers will foster greater environmental concern for them in the future. The Licking River Greenway Trails project is a wonderful example of how volunteer participation can make a huge positive impact!"
In addition to litter cleanup, additional programming and activities will be on-site. The Driftwood Institute will be in attendance collecting pieces of driftwood that will be used for various forms of sculpture and furniture that will be resold to the public. Keep Covington Beautiful will also be there spreading awareness and educating the public about litter prevention and recycling.
Interested in Volunteering?
Go to one of these site locations, this Saturday:
Waterfront site is (14 Pete Rose Pier, Covington KY) 8am-12pm;
LRG site is ( 1564 Water Street, Covington, KY) 9am-12pm
Greenup site is (Riverside Place, Covington, KY) 8am-12pm
Call Sheila Fields with questions 859-957-6352
About Riversweep
Since 1989, this award-winning cleanup for the Ohio River and its tributaries brings thousands of volunteers to the riverbanks to collect tons of trash and debris. River Sweep encompasses the entire length of the river, from its origin in Pittsburgh, PA to its end in Cairo, IL, including nearly 3,000 miles of shoreline and many tributaries. More than 18,000 volunteers from public organizations, civic groups, recreational clubs, and the general public in six states bordering the river come together to collect more than 7,000 tons of trash and other debris from the banks of the Ohio River and tributaries. River Sweep is an event organized by the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission, an interstate water pollution agency for the Ohio River Valley, along with environmental protection and natural resource agencies from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. To learn more, visit: http://www.orsanco.org/river-sweep