40 Clean Streams

Bucknell Management Students Lead Project Students, community pull chairs, cans from water Published in the Daily Item on Monday, April 14, 2014 By Robert Stoneback/The Daily Item; photos by Amanda August/The Daily Item LEWISBURG — Chairs, bottles, cans and other objects were fished out of Buffalo Creek and Bull Run on Sunday, thanks to the […]

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April 14, 2014
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Bucknell Management Students Lead Project

Students, community pull chairs, cans from water

Published in the Daily Item on Monday, April 14, 2014

By Robert Stoneback/The Daily Item; photos by Amanda August/The Daily Item

Molly Clemmer pulls trash out of the brush along Buffalo Creek as Katherine Curran, another Bucknell University student, looks for garbage during a cleanup in Lewisburg on Sunday morning.

LEWISBURG — Chairs, bottles, cans and other objects were fished out of Buffalo Creek and Bull Run on Sunday, thanks to the efforts of about 40 volunteers.

The cleanup project was spearheaded by members of Bucknell University’s Management 101 class. The class has students create their own businesses with the goal of assisting the community. The 28 students of the class’s Company C started “C Buckles Down to Clean the River Town.”

The students, with help from community volunteers, took to cleaning up the Susquehanna River and creeks this weekend as well as last weekend, when they worked at the boat ramp along St. George Street.

Tommy Sadik-Khan helps fill a trash bag held by Maddy Molinari as Matt Boozan looks on Sunday. They are Bucknell University students.

The student company also is selling belts emblazoned with the Bucknell Bison for $30. Proceeds from the sales will go to Charity: Water, which helps bring clean and safe drinking water to developing nations. “We wanted to give our town clean water as well as to another developing nation,” said company co-manager and Bucknell freshman Sedona Boyatzis. A total of 156 belts have been sold, and today is the last day they will be available. They can be bought from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Langone Center.

On Sunday, a group of volunteers started cleaning along Buffalo Creek, around the edges of Wolfe Field, at 11 a.m. Plastic water bottles, aluminum cans and plastic bags were the most common bits of trash pulled from the creek banks. Volunteers working along Bull Run in Hufnagle Park found larger items, including wall fans, desk chairs, folding chairs and “lots of beer bottles,” according to volunteer Amanda DeArmitt. She and husband Chris Herb, both from Long Island, N.Y., are Bucknell grads who were visiting family in Lewisburg over the weekend and decided to help out.Last weekend, the group filled 30 bags with trash at the boat landing. “Today, we hope to get much more because we have everyone from the company here,” Boyatzis said Sunday.Among the junk picked up at the boat ramp was an old rug partially buried in the ground, a plastic pig, two fire extinguishers, a pillow, tires, couch cushions and an unopened 12-pack of beer.“You could put together a nice living room with what we found,” said Bucknell freshman John Henry, vice president of Company C.Gloves, trash bags and vests were donated by the state Department of Transportation, with other materials supplied by the Union-Snyder Area Agency on Aging.

Samantha Pearson, of Lewisburg, collects trash along Buffalo Creek in Lewisburg on Sunday morning. She and the Lewisburg Neighborhoods Corporation plan to continue cleaning up along the river.

“We really appreciate the management class getting this started,” said Samantha Pearson, of the Lewisburg Neighborhoods Corporation. Her group worked alongside Company C on the cleanup project and also is involved in the River Towns program of the Susquehanna Greenway Partnership. The partnership is promoting a 500-mile trail along the Susquehanna, and Company C’s work is helping to contribute to Lewisburg’s portion of the trail.

Pearson and the corporation plan to regularly hold trash cleanups along the river in the spring and fall following the conclusion of Company C’s project.

“It’s easiest not to throw it (trash) away in the first place. But it’s still easier to clean it here than in the ocean,” Pearson said.

Email comments to rstoneback@dailyitem.com.

Members of the community working together to preserve natural settings and streetscapes, strengthen ties among neighbors, and improve the quality of life in Lewisburg for residents and visitors.