By Abigail Stepp
On Saturday, Aug. 29, more than 100 people gathered at Bisset Park along the banks of the New River for Fall Into the New, an annual cleanup that gives New River Valley residents an opportunity to help preserve the river and surrounding communities.
Volunteers included young families, seniors, Radford students, and other members of the local community. The volunteers spent the morning collecting trash and debris from the riverbanks and the surrounding grounds of Bisset Park.
Some groups took to the water in kayaks, canoes, and paddleboards to scoop litter from the river and sections of the water’s edge inaccessible from the park. By noon, volunteers were wet, dirty, and tired, but they had helped remove trash from the river and park.
Since 2007, the Giles County committee Renew the New has sponsored community cleanups every spring and fall along the 37 miles of the New River that flows through Giles County. In 2017, the organization expanded to the wider NRV region, collaborating with neighboring counties Pulaski, Montgomery, and Floyd as well as the city of Radford.
In the past 25 years, volunteers have contributed approximately 32,000 hours and collected an estimated 225 tons of trash and 5,000 tires from the New River. According to renewthenew.org, this year 351 volunteers worked at the Giles County and Radford sites to collect 165 bags of trash and 92 tires from the water and its banks. This year’s cleanup added to more than two decades of volunteer efforts to remove litter from the New River and its banks.
More information about future volunteer opportunities is available at renewthenew.org.
