25th Anniversary of Friends of Hurricane Creek Cleanup

This Friday, Feb, 23, 2018 will mark 25 years since the Strokers Paddle Club and Friends of Hurricane Creek had our first creek cleanup. We will celebrate this year on Sat. Feb. 24th at Watson's Bend

The first Hurricane Creek Cleanup

At the first cleanup we cooked hamburgers and chicken on a makeshift grill on the side of the road near the bridge.

We started with 16 members including our children. The next year we had 32 members and the 3rd year it was many more. All together at one time we hosted around 200 members and volunteers. 

FoHC has removed literally tons of trash and debris over the years including appliances, cars, household garbage, and thousands of tires over time. We took 232 tires from one location is a single day. The work has been long and tiring but well worth the effort.

2007

Scenes like this have been transformed,

2017

to scenes like this.























It has always puzzled me how some people think the outdoors is the best place to dispose of unwanted items and garbage but it happens every day. Without efforts like the FoHC Cleanup it would simply accumulate to a point of being not only unsightly but unhealthy and in some cases dangerous. Localized flooding during heavy rain events is mostly caused by stopped up drains.

Thanks to Rumsey for the can!

When this much litter builds up it has no choice but to run into our drinking water watersheds. Cities all over America are spending millions of tax payer funds removing the bulk of litter before it reaches the water processing facilities. Millions more are spent removing it from local street and road drains.

I'd like to think that over the years we have helped the community by removing tons of waste using local volunteers at a cost of "0" tax-payer dollars. Litter, after all was the catalyst for our group to begin 25 years ago. Unfortunately it is still a huge issue today.

There's nothing prettier than a clean creek

With that said, I'd like to invite the entire community to come out to Watson's Bend on Hurricane Creek and help us celebrate this monumental event. (see map below) This marks our 25th anniversary. We have the longest continuous running stream cleanup is Alabama History. Come share your Hurricane Creek stories with us. I'll be interviewing volunteers on camera for a video we are creating so come tell us what it is about the creek that makes it special for you.

THERE WILL BE FOOD!

This year we are going back to an old tradition of having a chili cook-off with all of the chili being used to feed volunteers. Bring your grandmothers best recipe or your own best effort. There will be a $50.00 cash prize for the winner and a great sense of community participation by all.

Bring your best recipe and an apatite! Meat, Veggie, Vegan all welcome

Here's a tentative schedule of the days events. If you can't make the entire day, at least come spend a little time with us and tell your story about the wonderful treasure we have here in our community, Hurricane Creek.

Clean-up, Chili Cook-off and Celebration: 

Agenda

8:30 Registration opens

9 – 12:  Cleanup (roadside, creek and park) There will be a limited number of canoes available so come early to reserve one.

12 – 1:30 Chili cook-off and lunch

1:30 – 3:  Annual meeting (guest speakers, announcements, recognition's)

3 - ?:  Celebration and Friendly conversations around the fire.

HUGE Shout-out of Thanks

 Steven Rumsey started donating the use of these huge garbage cans some 15 years ago. Picking up the vast amount of litter would not be possible without someone to take it away. For that, I'd like to offer a personal as well as an organizational thank you to Steven Rumsey and the company he started, Rumsey Environmental Services.

In the event of a rain-out, we will try for the following week. We'll keep you posted.

We have only had 1 rain-out. Plenty of coffee and donuts that day

.

Watson's Bend on Holt Peterson Rd