By Kasie Bolling | Celebrating its 16th year, Great Days of Service is a cooperative and community-focused initiative created by the Gwinnett Coalition for Health and Human Services. Because the environment plays such a vital role in the health and wellness of the citizens it serves, another local nonprofit has been honored to play a role in Great Days of Service since its inception. Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful (GCB) is proud to carry on that tradition with a special focus on a local watershed.
Last year, alongside the Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources, GCB and caring volunteers fanned out over the Jackson Creek Watershed in Norcross while undertaking a number of tasks that are vital to the preservation and protection of the watershed. This year, GCB shifts its focus to the Beaver Ruin Watershed in Duluth with a cleanup scheduled for Saturday, October 24 from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m.
GCB Executive Director Connie Wiggins explains: “Great Days of Service is a wonderful reminder from one year to the next to ask ourselves a very simple, but extremely critical question… ‘What can I do to help my community?’” She adds: “There are so many different ways and areas in which we can serve. The reasons to protect the health and sustainability of our watersheds reach far beyond their impact on the physical beauty of the area. The alarming truth is that everything that happens on and around the watershed, which represents the surrounding area of land that feeds into a lake, stream or pond, can have an impact on nearby waterways.
“The very same waterways that sustain life for local flora and fauna, provide an outlet for recreational pursuits like fishing and swimming, and sometimes even provide drinking water for our neighbors here in Gwinnett and further downstream. Water from rain and runoff flows downhill from the watershed into the waterway, often carrying litter, chemical pollution and the like with it. That’s where our volunteers come in.”
On October 24, volunteers for the Great Days of Service-Beaver Ruin Watershed Initiative will show their community pride by working together as neighbors to:
- Remove litter and invasive plants that threaten the health and sustainability of the Beaver Ruin watershed;
- Stencil storm drains with the important message, “No dumping, Leads to Streams” and educating neighbors about how anything that goes down the drain directly affects our waterways;
- Install bird and bat boxes that provide a welcoming habitat for creatures that disperse seeds and pollen and – in turn – help the watershed thrive; and
- Plant additional native shrubs and trees to discourage the growth of invasive plants, and increase the watershed’s ability to help filter pollutants from the water and provide a habitat and food for local fauna.
All volunteers must pre-register and be 14 or older to participate. To pre-register and learn more about Great Days of Service – Beaver Ruin Watershed Initiative, visit www.GwinnettCB.org. Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful offers a wide variety of ways to help residents get educated and engaged to care for our environment.
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