Paddling For Good
Fitness expert and personal trainer Debi McKibben has a passion for clean waterways in and around the Chesapeake Bay. An avid cyclist, McKibben has been a top fundraiser for the ShoreRivers Ride for Clean Rivers on the Eastern Shore. However, as an Annapolis area resident, McKibben was looking to do some good and help the waterways a little closer to home. So she gathered a group of volunteers from her neighborhood and spearheaded an outing to paddle their local community creeks in search of trash.
Collecting Trash by Kayak and Powerboat
The group, which included six paddlers and one powerboat, headed out to Mill Creek and Dividing Creek (off the Magothy River) at high tide on October 5. The paddling trash collectors expected to find lots of plastic bottles and other pieces of small debris. To their surprise, and pleasure, they found very few small pieces of trash. They did, however, find a tire, a dead animal (hopefully a racoon, but possibly a dog), and some other larger pieces of trash. The powerboat and its operator were key to the outing, as the large pieces of debris and garbage were too big to be brought back to shore by kayak.
McKibben says she's grateful for the volunteers who came out for the effort. "Because of the size of the stuff we found, I'm especially happy that we had a powerboat operator who was willing to come out with us," she says. McKibben plans to continue to find ways to work for cleaner waterways and inspire others to do the same.
