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Blue River Clean Up - New Castle, Indiana
By Dennis York
 y name
is Dennis York and I am writing this story in behalf of Jeff
Ray and myself. Jeff is my tireless river-cleaning partner
that had the original vision for this project. The two of
us are mid-forties, married with children, and found ourselves
unemployed for different reasons in 2001.
 n September
11, 2001 we were volunteering for a local "Day of Caring"
event where groups of adults and students work together in
the community cleaning, painting, performing odd jobs, etc.
While we worked, Jeff mentioned to me that he had seen a ½
mile section of the Blue River in need of some care that is
directly behind two strip malls along State Road 3. He stated
that the river had a couple of shopping carts in it and asked
if I would like to help him pull them out. I told him that
I would love to clean that section of the river so we began
to hatch our game plan.
ur
first day in the river, we wore chest waders borrowed
from the Minister of my Church, and were just ecstatic
to be there! What we soon found out was that our first
day mentally and physically overwhelmed us to the point
of sheer exhaustion. In the river we discovered, at
different points, large numbers of shopping carts. It
became apparent that some of the carts had been there
awhile as we found the names of stores on them that
had been closed for several years. By our estimate,
some of the items we pulled from the river had been
there for at least 15 years! Then we began to see tires,
lots and lots of tires! Due to fatigue, we did not stay
in the river more than four hours that first day.
 he
next day we climbed back into the river for "round
two" but not before Jeff began placing calls to
the City of New Castle, and anyone else he could think
of for assistance in removing the debris we were plucking
from the river. Some of the storeowners allowed us to
use their dumpsters, which includes the local Wal-Mart.
During our second day in the water, we discovered carts
partially or completely buried in sand and mud. Removing
the buried carts proved to be a difficult task as both
of us tried to pull, tug, place our feet on something
sturdy and resist the current all at the same time!
 fter
removing most of the remaining junk from the river we
realized that:
- We were going to need some help to get this stuff
moved to a spot where it could be loaded on a wagon.
- We needed extra people-power to pull several buried
carts from the water.
- We were going to need a driver while coordinating
efforts from down in the river.
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we did not plan on was rain, which arrived on
Friday night and raised the water level ever so
slightly by Saturday morning. With Jeff and I
in the river and our group of 10-12 community-service
helpers on the bank, we needed someone to drive
Jeff's Jeep with the wagon behind it, to transport
the junk to the parking lots for easy pickup access.
Keith Rahn came through as our driver that Saturday
and his assistance was certainly appreciated.
The water level was up with a stronger current
than previous days and the water was a little
muddy. Jeff and I both slipped and fell while
wading a couple of times but thankfully neither
one of us were hurt.