#hegins

United By Blue's 2nd Annual Deep Creek Cleanup

Last November, United By Blue headed west, to the small community of Hegins, PA for a cleanup of an illegal dump site. We were blown away by this cleanup for several reasons: first, the site contained 125 tons of trash; next, our volunteers removed 938 tires in 5 hours; and most importantly, the community volunteers who came out were some of the most amazing and hard-working volunteers we've ever encountered.

You don’t have to come to every cleanup to be a stand-out volunteer. Angela Geist attended her first cleanup a few weeks ago, but unlike any other volunteer we’ve seen, she did it all with a 10 month old baby on her back. Talk about commitment. We decided we wanted to get to know her better, and thought maybe our readers would too!

1. How did you hear about UBB and our cleanups? I learned about the cleanup from my friend and high school science teacher, Pam Ulciny.  She had sent out an email looking for volunteers. I had been looking for a volunteering opportunity for myself and my son (Bryce, 12), and this was a perfect way to help the community and educate my son at the same time. 2. What’s your favorite part of the cleanups? My favorite part of the clean up was seeing everyone come together to work on cleaning this space up.  It was also wonderful to see my son get so excited about helping, and all of the "cool" trash he was finding.

3. We heard you did the entire cleanup with a baby strapped to your back; not many people can say that! How was that experience? I did work the cleanup with my daughter (Bella, 10 months) on my back. She goes everywhere with me. She loves being in her pack. She is light, but I certainly got some good exercise that day!

4. Is environmentalism a prominent feature in your household and children’s education? I do my best to teach them about being good to the environment.  I must be doing a good job because there are times that Bryce reminds me about turning a light off or unplugging a charger [UBB note: we love hearing this!!].

UBB presents the Deep Creek Cleanup in Hegins, PA

In the rural farm town of Hegins, about an hour northeast of our state capital, you would expect to find a thicket of trees, a calming meadow or family of squirrels alongside Deep Creek, not an estimated 125 tons of trash. Since this site was so large, we decided to tackle the trash in stages, starting with the obscene amount of tires at the site.