In late September, Roswell Rotary Club joined in with Rivers Alive to clean up the Chattahoochee River. Roswell Rotary has been participating for about the past 10 years. As part of the Georgia Adopt a Stream program, Roswell Rotary has adopted the section of the Chattahoochee River along Riverside Road between Don White Park and Eves Road. This includes the roadway, river and river bank, the two Islands of Island Ford and the paths between the river and the road. There is a sign on Riverside Road noting Roswell Rotary. Volunteers in the club periodically check the water and keep the stream and roadway clean. Chairman of the river clean up project, Dutch Earle, says, “Rivers Alive is an annual state-wide event for over 600 miles of river. This year, Roswell Rotary had about 15 volunteers that picked up over 340 lbs. of trash, winning two of the three prizes for the Roswell city effort: strangest piece of trash and most trash per capita. In the 15 years that Rivers Alive has taken place, 467,000 volunteers extracted 113 million pounds of garbage from 33,000 miles of waterway."

There are two organized river cleanups a year, plus many club members pick up litter when they are out for a walk. In addition to the fall Rivers Alive project, the spring cleanup, typically in early April – Sweep the Hooch – is sponsored by the Chattahoochee River Keepers for the length of the river through the extended metro Atlanta, about 100 miles. A dozen or more counties are represented, with 40 pickup sites and about 1,000 participants. Roswell Rotary is a sponsor. Over the past nine years, over 80 tons of trash has been collected by the 4500 volunteers.

The week after the cleanup is the Annual River Race. For this year, Roswell Rotary had 50 volunteers and picked up 72 bags of trash, plus 29 “other items” including a tire, inflatable raft, wheels, pipe, road signs, car bumpers, etc.

Roswell Rotary's pick up work focuses on the Riverside Road area, which we have adopted. "River clean up days are great opportunities for families to get involved in a Rotary project and see the results of their efforts", says club President Gordon Owens. The club will get busy again April 4, 2020, when they join Sweep the Hooch’s 10^th annual clean up.

For information on Rivers Alive, go to https://ra.gaepd.org and Sweep the Hooch, go to https://chattahoochee.org/sweep-the-hooch/