Rivers Alive Cleanup Brings Youth, Adult Volunteers to Improve Dallas Historic Site

During our recent cold, windy weather, Paulding County area residents braved the weather to clean up New Hope Cemetery, as part of the continuing statewide campaign to clean and preserve over 70,000 miles of Georgia’s rivers and streams. The effort was part of Rivers Alive, a joint program of the Environmental Protection Division’s Outreach Education Programs and the Department of Community Affairs’ Keep Georgia Beautiful Program.

The annual Georgia Waterway Cleanup is expected to once again be the largest single volunteer effort to beautify Georgia’s water resources. Paulding County UGA Cooperative Extension 4-H’ers and Master Gardener Extension Volunteers, Keep Paulding Beautiful, Paulding County Historical Society, the Paulding County Water System, and the City of Dallas teamed up to stage their cleanup on Saturday, November 1 at New Hope Cemetery in Dallas. They joined an estimated 30,000 other volunteers statewide participating in the annual river cleanup. Volunteers cleaned up trash from the creek, walking trails, recreation fields, parking areas and playground area in the park. This fall over 200 other cleanups will collect trash and similar debris in streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands and the ocean from Lake Allatoona in North Georgia to the Ochlockonee River in the South.

New Hope Cemetery is the site of a Civil War Battlefield, as well as the site of Georgia’s worst airplane crash. There are many Civil War soldiers buried there along with some of the victims of the plane crash. The cemetery is managed by a trust that is not funded to conduct more than the most basic of maintenance, so they were grateful for volunteer efforts to keep it clean. Some of the members of the Historical Society and Cemetery Trust were on hand to help and also to provide historical overview of the site and give guidance to the focus of cleanup activities. 4-H’ers noted that they could see how much of this trash could end up in nearby waterways, since it was moving rapidly in wind and obvious patterns of storm water movement had collected trash in downhill locations.

In addition to University of Georgia Cooperative Extension and 4-H, the cleanup at New Hope Cemetery was sponsored by Keep Paulding Beautiful and the City of Dallas. Tommy Leonard, Executive Director of Keep Paulding Beautiful was pleased with the large volunteer turnout, “Keep Paulding Beautiful enjoys working with youth organizations like 4-H and other volunteer groups to help improve our local community and waterway cleanups are one of our annual projects. We were delighted to team up with our local 4-H’ers and Master Gardener Extension Volunteers to conduct this year’s cleanup.”

Mary Carol Sheffield, Paulding County Extension Coordinator, commented, “The cleanup is a popular community service event for 4-H’ers, their parents, Master Gardener Volunteers, and Keep Paulding Beautiful volunteers. It brings together a coalition of people who really want to make difference in our community and allows youth to make an impact through meaningful service. Paulding County Extension is so grateful for the partners who support this event: Keep Paulding Beautiful, the Paulding County Water System, and the City of Dallas.”

Supporters of the statewide campaign include: Georgia Adopt-A-Stream and Project WET, Georgia Department of Natural Resources Environmental Protection Division, Keep Georgia Beautiful, and Georgia Department of Community Affairs. Dozens of other local organizations will be sponsoring individual cleanups around the state.

Paulding County UGA Cooperative Extension is an Equal Opportunity Organization that operates as part of the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Our purpose is to bring current research and information to the people of Paulding County in the areas of agriculture and natural resources, 4-H and youth development, and family and consumer sciences. Please contact us at 770-443-7616 or look for more information on our webpage www.ugaextension.com/paulding/.