Today
the Dive Team was invited to assist some of our younger citizens in their
community service project. Cub Scout Troop #6 made plans to perform a
shoreline cleanup of Silver Lake and requested our assistance along the water's
edge.
Scouts
and some of their family members first met with Mayor Stephen Reid and
Councilman Tom Vogel, who thanked everyone for helping to clean up this part of
the community. Just scanning across the lake, it was obvious that plastic
debris in particular was an issue. However, everyone brought gloves and
garbage bags ready for the job.
Before
we began the cleanup, Dive Team members Joe, Chris, and Sue gave the troop a
short tour of our Dive Rescue truck and showed everyone some of the basic dive
gear we always travel with. (A few of the kids discovered that an air
tank and weight belt weigh more than they do!) We didn’t need to do any
diving at this site today, though, but we were in exposure suits to help with
the wettest part of today’s job.
The
scouts broke into three teams to tackle different sections of the shoreline,
with one diver accompanying each group. While the scouts picked up all
manner of garbage around the lawns and in the shore reeds, divers helped from
the water side to add to the garbage bags. Plastic debris was indeed the
most common garbage – bags, bottles, straws, wrappers of all sorts. Other
items included cans, glass bottles, rusty rebar, a house shutter, diaper, silk
flower wreath, skate wheel, hackeysack, and even one of the town’s traffic barrels.
And EVERYONE recovered golf balls. It was a messy job, but someone had to
do it.
By the
end of the morning, teams had collected dozens of garbage bags for proper
disposal. A big ‘thank you’ goes to all the volunteers who worked so hard
today on this project. We’re looking forward to working with them again
in service to the community.
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