June 3, 2020 -Last summer the City of Apalachicola reached out to local organizations, asking them to adopt local parks. Apalachicola Riverkeeper adopted Mill Pond nearly a year ago last June. Now every fourth Friday of each month, Apalachicola Riverkeeper volunteers and staff start their days off right with some local community stewardship.
This past week, a cheerful team of “Trash Bashers” consisting of Lynn Wilder, John Alber, Dodie Alber, Penny Alber (dog), Jenny Odom, Cappy Odom (dog), Greg Krivonak, Dave Gessert, Susan Macken, and Cameron Baxley, showed up ready with buckets and trash pickers.
Dodie Alber, board president of Apalachicola Riverkeeper (AR), and John Alber, a 2022 Rivertrek volunteer, showed up in their “Trash Basher” golf cart complete with buckets, gloves and trash pickers. Lynn Wilder, AR’s board member who initiated the park adoption, was right behind them with her 5 foot pool net to get those hard-to-reach marine debris items floating in the boat basin. All have been assisting with the Mill Pond cleanup since inception. Dodie and John took a moment to remember some of the items they’ve found over the last year. They recalled, “Oil pans, gas cans, easy chairs, tires, coolers, a duck decoy, a million cigarette butts, every type of alcohol container, steel cable, hawsers, nets, a LORAN antenna, TVs, a microwave, a door.”
John, Jenny and Cameron used a grappling hook to hoist a water-logged boat cabin door out of the water. Greg and Dodie were determined to get more cleaned up and headed over to north side of the basin and filled Greg’s truck bed with trash.
New to Apalachicola Riverkeeper and also a 2022 Rivertrek volunteer, Dave Gessert had the day off and drove over from Mexico Beach to join the cleanup crew.
Join Apalachicola Riverkeeper at the next mill pond clean up. We’re there every fourth Friday of the month, 9-10 a.m. View more pictures.
