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River R.A.T.S. begin new tradition
  
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Cedar clean-up to become annual event
By Dean Close
Times Editor
For some of them, it was their very first time to see this part of the Cedar River.
For others, it was a trip down Memory Lane.
But for all involved, the first-ever Cedar River R.A.T.S. (Running Around Tidying Streams) clean-up day was an inspiring start to what group members hope and expect become an annual tradition.
While many of the participants wore white River R.A.T.S. t-shirts, Marcia Hite wore a light blue shirt from a much earlier local group, the Cedar Sailors Boat Club.
The Sailors, Marcia recalled, would meet often on the river to ride their boats together. They would even divide into North and South teams, depending on where in Vinton they lived, to play volleyball games.
Marcia estimates that she has had that blue t-shirt and matching cap for approximately 35 years.
Marcia and her husband, Dave, had to sell their boat this year because of Dave’s health. It was a sad time, she said. Yet she’s happy to see the young man they sold it to enjoying the boat and the river with his friends.
“Dave and I were on the water from Day 1,” she recalls.
On Saturday, Marcia was on the water with her brother, Larry Moody. The two found a rusty 55-gallon drum and some other items as they motored downstream from Minne Estema Park to Phil Barkdoll’s cabin area north of Vinton.
Nearly 100 volunteers, including more than 30 AmeriCorps NCCC members who live in Vinton, made the journey from Minne Estema to Barkdoll’s and then to the Dudgeon area just north of the Highway 150 bridge. They collected a variety of items: Barrels, appliances, doors, tires, tanks, and an assortment of other things. Anything the volunteers could see and pick up, they put in their boats and hauled to shore. A cabin and a fishing shack which were flooded added to the debris. The shack is still bobbing in the water; volunteers brought many items from the cabin, and in defiance of the old cliche, even hauled to shore not one kitchen sink, but two.
“This is a great turnout,” said Pam Wolter of the Cedar River Environmental Group (CREG), who worked with local leaders to organize the event.
For many of the Americorps volunteers, Saturday’s project was their first opportunity to serve after spending the first few weeks in Americorps serve in classrooms for orientation and training.
“It’s extremely exciting to get to help others after all that training,” said Jazmin Simmons, of Havre de Grace, Md.
Benton County Conservation Naturalist Karen Phelps was one of the many people who helped. Phelps explained the importance of the clean-up to the media while Wolter answered questions from a television reporter about the project. Phelps said that one of the results of the flood is that much of the debris that was in the river bed was washed onto private property far from the bank because of the fast moving, wide flood waters that set records in June.
Tami Stark of Vinton Unlimited said the River R.A.T.S. plan to make the clean-up an annual event.
For others, it was a trip down Memory Lane.
But for all involved, the first-ever Cedar River R.A.T.S. (Running Around Tidying Streams) clean-up day was an inspiring start to what group members hope and expect become an annual tradition.
While many of the participants wore white River R.A.T.S. t-shirts, Marcia Hite wore a light blue shirt from a much earlier local group, the Cedar Sailors Boat Club.
The Sailors, Marcia recalled, would meet often on the river to ride their boats together. They would even divide into North and South teams, depending on where in Vinton they lived, to play volleyball games.
Marcia estimates that she has had that blue t-shirt and matching cap for approximately 35 years.
Marcia and her husband, Dave, had to sell their boat this year because of Dave’s health. It was a sad time, she said. Yet she’s happy to see the young man they sold it to enjoying the boat and the river with his friends.
“Dave and I were on the water from Day 1,” she recalls.
On Saturday, Marcia was on the water with her brother, Larry Moody. The two found a rusty 55-gallon drum and some other items as they motored downstream from Minne Estema Park to Phil Barkdoll’s cabin area north of Vinton.
Nearly 100 volunteers, including more than 30 AmeriCorps NCCC members who live in Vinton, made the journey from Minne Estema to Barkdoll’s and then to the Dudgeon area just north of the Highway 150 bridge. They collected a variety of items: Barrels, appliances, doors, tires, tanks, and an assortment of other things. Anything the volunteers could see and pick up, they put in their boats and hauled to shore. A cabin and a fishing shack which were flooded added to the debris. The shack is still bobbing in the water; volunteers brought many items from the cabin, and in defiance of the old cliche, even hauled to shore not one kitchen sink, but two.
“This is a great turnout,” said Pam Wolter of the Cedar River Environmental Group (CREG), who worked with local leaders to organize the event.
For many of the Americorps volunteers, Saturday’s project was their first opportunity to serve after spending the first few weeks in Americorps serve in classrooms for orientation and training.
“It’s extremely exciting to get to help others after all that training,” said Jazmin Simmons, of Havre de Grace, Md.
Benton County Conservation Naturalist Karen Phelps was one of the many people who helped. Phelps explained the importance of the clean-up to the media while Wolter answered questions from a television reporter about the project. Phelps said that one of the results of the flood is that much of the debris that was in the river bed was washed onto private property far from the bank because of the fast moving, wide flood waters that set records in June.
Tami Stark of Vinton Unlimited said the River R.A.T.S. plan to make the clean-up an annual event.
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| RATS! We need more of ‘em |
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