Marine Specialties barge transports a huge amount of debris to War Hill Park to be hauled away.
While this year’s annual Lake Lanier cleanup effort started out slow, it ended with lots of fresh faces and tons of trash collected.
“The day started out slow but then we got very, very busy,” said Bonny Putney, vice president of operations for the Lake Lanier Association, organizer of the annual event.
“We are at 22 dumpsters and counting,” she said on Monday afternoon, two days after the event. Volunteers were still gathering and counting what was collected during the Saturday, Sept. 24th event.
Putney said they removed five abandoned sailboats during the cleanup.
Perhaps the most significant part of the day for Putney was the participation of first-time volunteers. “We were very happy to see a lot of new faces, new people who joined us for the first time.”
Final figures for this year’s edition of the cleanup won’t be available for several days but Putney said the group had “around 1,400 volunteers” for the effort.
“It was a really good day for Lake Lanier,” she concluded.
Photos: courtesy of Lake Lanier Association
Church and civic groups joined in the cleanup effort.
Co-Captain of the Lanier Islands site Rachael Price displays one of the more unique items of junk removed from the lake – a sewing machine.
