From the North Florida Herald

By Emily Fuggetta

Thanks to an army of volunteer garbage grabbers, visitors to the Suwannee River are now less likely to stub their toes on nearly 15 tons of trash.

Between September and early December, 576 volunteers pulled car seats, refrigerators and other debris from the river between the Florida-Georgia line and the river's end at the Gulf of Mexico.

This was the first time the entire river had been cleaned up in one try.

Current Problems, a Gainesville nonprofit devoted to cleaning up North Florida waters, organized the project at the request of Edwin McCook, a land management specialist for Suwannee River Water Management District.

McCook, who served for about a decade on the Suwannee County Chamber of Commerce before taking his job about 10 years ago with the management district, said the river is an important part of local tourism, and keeping it free of debris is a necessity.

"The Suwannee River is one of the crown jewels of our area," McCook said. "We need to keep it clean."

Fritzi Olson, director of Current Problems, made it her personal mission to gather volunteers.

"I got the word out however I could," she said, sending notices to malls and local papers, putting up posters, e-mailing everyone she could think of and contacting local television stations.

"I felt very strongly that the cleanup should be done by people local to the area in which they were working," she said.

While volunteers from Gainesville played an important role in the cleanup, she said, the group didn't want to rely on Gainesville workers to bear the whole workload.

"People know their part of the river best," Olson said. "It gave them more of a feeling of ownership of the river."

Volunteers poured in from all over North Florida, including Boy Scout troops, local divers and conservation groups like the North Florida Springs Alliance.

Some worked long hours, she said, from 8 or 9 a.m. until evening, and some completed their portions of the cleanup in a few hours.

Kelly Jessop, president of the North Florida Springs Alliance, participated in cleanup efforts at Troy Springs State Park in O'Brien. He said the volunteers in his group, including kayakers and about 50 UF freshmen fulfilling their community service requirements, pulled more than 1,000 pounds of trash from the water.

"I don't think anyone had any complaints," Jessop said. "It was really rewarding."

Olson said Current Problems hopes to make the event an annual tradition, and McCook called it a success.

"It was incredible," he said. "It far exceeded my expectations."