(Host) About 200 people paddled and hiked the shoreline of Chittenden Reservoir Saturday taking part in Central Vermont Public Service’s annual clean up day.
As VPR’s Nina Keck reports, unusually warm weather and brilliant fall foliage brought out locals and visitors alike.
(sound of crowd)
(Keck) Organizers from CVPS handed out T-shirts, bright green garbage bags, maps of the lake and a free lunch to all comers.
(CVPS) “Even all the shoreline has been assigned but I think we still need people to eat hotdogs and…
(Hall) “The color is beautiful and everyone is talking about seeing moose and loons and this place is a complete treasure.”
(Keck) Chittenden resident Kathy Hall lives just a few miles from the reservoir.
(Hall) “A couple weeks ago I had a reunion of college friends up here and they just haven’t stopped emailing me about what a gorgeous spot I have to live near. So I thought, wow I really have to go out and help take care of it.”
(Keck) The reservoir was built a century ago to produce hydro electric power. CVPS organized the first clean up five years ago as a way to preserve the undeveloped beauty of the lake.
(Isaacson) “I’m Ron Isaacson from Framingham Mass and we have a little ski house up here at Killington. And we read in the Mountain Times about this pick up today so we decided to come over and try to clean the place up since we enjoy the lake so much when we’re around.”
(Keck) “What did you find?”
(Isaacson) “Well – a lot – let me check my bag here (laughs) . . . . I found a big piece of rope and some straws and some plastic.”
(Keck) “Was there more trash than you thought or less?”
(Isaacson) “Less trash than I thought. – I think people are more conscientious today.”
(Keck) Chittenden resident Melissa Slenker walked out of the woods with her 6 year-old daughter Abigail and a bag full of garbage.
(Melissa) “What did we find today for trash?” (Abigail) “We found cigarettes we found golf posts, we found plastic.”
(Melissa) “That hurts the birds right?”
(Abigail) “We found bottle caps…”
(Keck) Once the trash was collected, people had a chance to visit, have some lunch or play in the water. As one man said as he paddled into shore – who knew cleaning up could be so much fun.
For VPR news, I’m Nina Keck in Chitenden.