Students rest on a giant tire that was removed from the Blanchard River.

In October, hundreds of volunteers pitched in to clean up one of the most infamous parts of Findlay.
   
The University of Findlay’s Wilderness Club, along with volunteers from Marathon Petroleum Co. and other students from UF, held its first Blanchard River cleanup of the year with the goal of continuing to clean up Findlay and make it a better place to live.
   
Bethany Henderson-Dean, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology and adviser to the Wilderness Club, said the effort was a success, as usual.
   
“We had about 105 or 110 students there,” she said. “About 60 were from Wilderness Club, and the rest were from classes that wanted to help out.”
   
The match with Marathon for this cleanup came through a group the Wilderness Club regularly collaborates with for river cleanup.
   
“We always call the Blanchard River Watershed Committee, and they had been contacted by Marathon so they paired us up,” said Henderson-Dean.
   
The volunteers worked at two sites, one near a park on Howard Street and the other on Township Road 139.
   
Among other things, the group pulled 250 tires out of the Blanchard. Henderson-Dean said this year’s efforts saw quite different results than the last cleanup.
   
“We were there last year right after the flood and we pulled a lot of household things,” she said. “There were still remnants from the flood this year.”
   
She said other items volunteers found in the river included a purse from 1969 that still contained IDs, a children’s slide, a bike, clothing, an inflatable pool, a tractor tire and an empty oil barrel. There was also a lot of other, more common, refuse in the water, which was sorted before being disposed.
   
“We always separate the recyclables,” said Henderson-Dean.
She also cited several other ways college students (and others alike) can help the environment. It’s easy, she said.
   
“Don’t leave your lights on if you aren’t in your room; think about your energy consumption,” she said. “And there’s no excuse not to recycle. Utilize the recycling trailer that comes to campus and Litter Landing.”
   
The Wilderness Club will host its second Blanchard River cleanup the Saturday before spring finals, April 25.
   
By Paige Aten, communication major, Napoleon, Ohio