April 9, 2018 – Washington Co., WI – UW-Washington County invites the community to join campus clean-up efforts on Saturday morning, April 21 (rain date April 28). The effort is in conjunction with the larger “Friends of Milwaukee’s Rivers” annual River Clean Up project.
This will be the 23rd year that UW-WC has participated in this project that involves 50 different sites along the Milwaukee River from Kewaskum thru downtown Milwaukee and involves almost 3,000 volunteers.
Last year, over 200 local volunteers – including students, faculty, area Girl Scouts and community members – participated in UW-WC’s outdoor work day.
Volunteers will be picking up debris from the following areas: Bicentennial Park, Eisenbahn trail, LacLawrann Conservancy, Lucas Lake (Silverbrook Girl Scout Camp), Milwaukee River, Ridge Run Park, River Walk (downtown West Bend), Silver Creek, and UW-WC grounds/University Drive.
The annual river cleanup is part of Keep America Beautiful – Great American Cleanup, the nation’s largest annual community improvement program. FMR’s mission is to “protect water quality and wildlife habitat in the river corridors and to advocate for sound land use in the Milwaukee, Menomonee, and Kinnickinnic River.”
Participants should meet at 8:45am in the student parking lot at UW-WC, (400 University Drive, West Bend) and plan to work until noon. Those joining the effort should plan to wear old clothes and shoes and bring their
own gloves and rain gear (if necessary). Donations of baked goods are welcome. Trash bags will be distributed.
Participants will receive free t-shirts as well as a pass to the Milwaukee County Zoo and Milwaukee Domes. No registration is necessary.
UW-WC Chemistry students are also involved in Earth Week activities. Students are researching and will present different topics related to “seawater” to coincide with the 2018 “Dive into Marine Chemistry” theme for Chemists Celebrate Earth Week. A science poster display will address a large number of chemical elements and compounds found in seawater at 3.5% salinity. Chemistry students are also focusing on the issue of increased salinity in our freshwater due to road salt. The science posters will be on display beginning April 22 in the Collins Science Building near room 228.
For more info on the UW-WC river cleanup, contact Dr. Chris Hays (christopher.hays@uwc.edu) or Rob Sanborn (robert.sanborn@uwc.edu). UW-WC is located at 400 S. University Drive in West Bend.