River Cleanup Goal Of P4C Paddle Club
WARSAW — To change the world, sometimes all that’s needed is a small step. For the newly formed Paddlers for Conservation Paddle Club, that small step was getting fed up with the trash they were finding on their paddle trips.
In 2015, they got together to clean up the river they traveled. 2016 brings their solidification into a non-profit organization that organizes and leads cleanup efforts on the Tippecanoe River. P4C partners with Indiana Center for Lakes and Streams at Grace College as well as the DNR.
The year’s first weekend of river cleanup was on May 7 and the second is scheduled for May 14. The club welcomes anyone who wants to help. Volunteers should bring a kayak or canoe and a mandatory personal flotation device, and the club will supply work gloves and lunch. A Kayak giveaway is scheduled on each cleanup day, as well as a final giveaway for new members at Warsaw’s August First Fridays.
For Ed Roberts, club president, river cleanup is a mission. “Until you get out there and float down the river, you don’t see the trash that people throw in,” he says. The restoration and enhancement of the Tippecanoe River and Kosciusko County lakes and streams through hands on environmental stewardship is the club’s goal, with the end result being the preservation of rivers, lakes and streams for the future.
The cleanup efforts on Tippecanoe in 2015 cleared 80-90 log jams and about five truckloads of trash.
He shook his head. “The stuff you find in the back of the river is astounding … coolers, balls, trash. We once found a whole computer monitor and a toilet out in the middle of nowhere.”
The goal of the club is conservation, but it’s not all about work: it’s also about enjoying the results of their handiwork. The club participates in monthly floats at various rivers throughout the county.
“It’s a super-cheap, fun family thing to do. It gets the kids out in nature,” states Roberts. “You see so many different sights and hidden things out there in the river that you wouldn’t see just driving down the road.”
He went on to describe a nesting area for sandhill cranes visible from a boat that isn’t accessible from the ground without permission from the property owner. A bonus, he says, is that “floating down the river you usually don’t spook or startle the nature.”
Activities the public are invited to besides the cleanup days are the first “Paddle Wars” competition to be held at the Lakes Festival, where the strongest paddling team will prevail in a game of canoe tug of war.
Also at the lakes festival is the “Kayaks for Kids” event. P4C will sponsor all kayaks and equipment needed to provide the kayak experience to kids free of charge.
The club is looking for new members who care about human impact on the county’s rivers and who want float buddies to go out with. Single membership is $15 and family membership is $25 for the year, with all dues going towards the river cleanup efforts.
Info about the upcoming river cleanup or donations to the club’s river conservation efforts can be found on its website, www.p4cpaddleclub.com or by calling (574) 328-0611.