East Windsor Volunteers Clean Up Etra Lake

Family, community, and a sense of responsibility to the environment were the themes of the East Windsor Stream Cleanup held at on Saturday. The 36 volunteers that came out were able to pick up 594 pounds of garbage—mostly bottles and cans—from the lake area, path and sports fields.

East Windsor Township and the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association, along with the AmeriCorps Watershed Ambassador Program, co-sponsored the event. (Most of the township is located in the watershed.) The goals of the cleanups, which take place in 10 towns across New Jersey, are to educate and raise awareness on how peoples’ daily lives affect the water and environment in their communities. Ideally, when people see the damage firsthand, it will be harder to overlook in the future.

Leslie Brecknell, the Watershed Association Coordinator for the event, said that the most common trash items found were “cigarette butts, then bottles and food wrappers.” It is mostly lightweight objects, generally plastic, which makes the hundreds of pounds of trash collected in previous years a very telling number.

“East Windsor is not a bigger problem than anywhere else. It’s statewide,” Brecknell said. “There has been a strong response from the community and we’re encouraged by that. We’re very happy to partner again with East Windsor.”

Many of the volunteers were families coming with their children, and most had sons in the Cub Scouts who taking part in a service project for that group. Caroline Garcia came to the cleanup with her family of six. “We thought it would be a good family event. It’s our first time coming to the cleanup,” she said. “We have six bags [of trash] so far.”

One of the volunteers was Peter Yeager, member of the East Windsor Planning Board and a Democratic candidate for the Township Council. “My daughter plays soccer in the field down here,” Yeager said. “It’s the least we could do.”

Parents said they saw the importance of children being involved in the cleanup. “It’s so that they know that places don’t stay clean on their own. It takes a community,” said volunteer Daniel Hoffman.

The message seemed to resonate with the children, some as young as 3. “We need to help our environment,” said 8-year-old Jerry Ford.

Democrat Mayor Janice Mironov also took time out to come to the cleanup and meet with volunteers. “We co-sponsor the event every year. I like to come out and support the event and the important work for the Watershed Association,” she said.

“We think it’s terrific that residents come out, especially the young folks, and take pride in the community,” she continued.

East Windsor has been participating in the cleanup event since 2008. In the past three years, a total of 52 community volunteers have collected 552 pounds of trash, a number that was doubled this year.

Other cleanups were held this past weekend in Hightstown and Cranbury.