Thank You Volunteers!

Childers Oil sponsors River Sweep

A portion of the riverbank of the north fork of the Kentucky River in Letcher county is cleaner today thanks to about 50 people who spent part of their weekend last Saturday helping to remove debris from the area. They were taking part in River Sweep, an annual riverbank cleanup for the Ohio River and its tributaries sponsored by the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO). The Letcher county portion was sponsored locally by Childers Oil.

“We collected more than four dump truck loads of trash,” said Missy Matthews, Childers’ vice-president. Besides the usual garbage of cups, cans, and paper wrappers items included mattresses, box springs, toilet seats, tires, shopping carts and even a vacuum cleaner. That last item earned Prince Miranda, an elementary student from Eolia, the award for most unusual item collected.

Also, volunteers pulled out a Ford Explorer that had been in the river for more than two years. It was so heavy from being full of sediment, that it broke the chain twice before volunteers were finally able to get it out.

People came from five counties to take part in the cleanup: Pike, Letcher, Knott, Breathitt and Perry. Volunteers all received tee-shirts and enjoyed breakfast and box lunches provided by Childers. One of the volunteers, Lee Anna Mullins, who chairs the Mountain Heritage Festival Committee, said she was very happy to help. “Our rivers and streams are beautiful in this area and they really need to be cleaned up and taken care of.”

Matthews said it was an “awesome” day and that she got great response from volunteers, including a woman who shared her e-mail address. “She said from now on when you do something like this, let me know and we would love to volunteer.” That woman may be hearing from Matthews later this fall when Childers plans on helping clean up an illegal dump in Millstone.

As for River Sweep, this was Childers first time to sponsor the event and Matthews says they plan on doing it again next year.

Check out some photos from the event below.