Volunteers came out Saturday morning to help clean up around Montgomery Dam on the Fox River in Montgomery and Waubonsie Lake Park in Aurora in an event that was a bit overdue thanks to Mother Nature.
Due to heavy rains and high water levels in the Fox River in late April, the Fox Valley Park District postponed the event, set for April 25 in order to celebrate Earth Day, to May 16.
Ivan Chambers, community outreach coordinator for the Fox Valley Park District, said moving the event from late April to Saturday was necessary.
“Due to the elevated levels on the Fox River and out of abundance of caution and the safety of the community and volunteers, we determined that postponing the event was the best and most responsible course of action,” he said.
Chambers said the annual event has been going on for several years and that “for the past two years, we’ve been running this simultaneously” at both the Montgomery Dam on the Fox River and Waubonsie Lake Park.
“With Montgomery, we’ve been working there at least 10 years and then we added Waubonsie,” he said. “Generally, we average about 30 volunteers at each location.”
Chambers said the clean-up is necessary at the sites because “the waterways are known for collecting different trash and debris along the shoreline.”
“Volunteering for these types of events and participating – it creates a visual improvement in public spaces along with strengthening community connections and civic space,” he said. “It also helps protect the environment and builds community pride in ownership and creates volunteer and service opportunities. Most important, it also creates immediate, visual impact.”
Those volunteering, like Donna Smith of Aurora, who was helping out at Waubonsie Lake, said the event is an important one.
“The clean-up is something that we had to get done, absolutely,” she said, adding that, “Waubonsie Lake is pretty clean, but we work along the shoreline finding candy wrappers and bottles.”
Volunteer Theresa Solan of Aurora said it was important to participate at the clean-up because “if we all pitch in everything will stay beautiful and we can all enjoy it.”
Angie Ng of Oswego said she comes to Waubonsie Lark Park often and that this was her first time participating in the clean-up event as she “recently moved here from Wisconsin.”
“I thought this would be nice as I enjoy the biking trails here,” Ng said. “I like to exercise out here, and I want to keep the place I come to beautiful.
“If you enjoy the park, I guess you have to get a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when you come and do something like this,” Ng said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
