After raining all day Friday with thunderstorms and a few tornadoes thrown in, the sun came out bright and early on Saturday, April 1. So did 50 volunteers from the Suffolk-Nansemond Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America and the Nansemond River Preservation Alliance, as well as some ecology and ROTC students from King’s Fork High School. They were participating in a Nansemond River cleanup event.

Despite the damp conditions, volunteers collected a significant amount of trash and other debris from along the riverbank.

Approximately 125 bags of trash were picked up. There were also some 50 automobile tires, a lawn mower housing, an automobile bumper and exhaust pipe, 15-20 five-gallon plastic buckets, several 55-gallon plastic drums and a lot of other trash.

When the group ran out of trash bags, the Cook Out restaurant and the Farm Fresh grocery store, both located on North Main Street, helped out by donating additional trash bags.

Much of the equipment used during the river cleanups previously came from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Adopt-A-Stream program, but that program was discontinued due to state budget cuts.

Suffolk’s Public Works Department has been helpful by supplying trash grabbers and bags, in addition to coordinating with the Suffolk Department of Parks and Recreation to obtain a location to accumulate the trash and subsequently dispose of it.

This was the Suffolk Nansemond IWLA chapter’s third Nansemond River cleanup event, and it was definitely a community effort involving dedicated volunteers from several organizations, help and support from the city of Suffolk and the cooperation of local residents and businesses along the river.