LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. — As many as 200 volunteers from 30 organizations spent Saturday cleaning around Lake Murray as part of the Sixth Annual Keep the Midlands Beautiful Lake and River Sweep.
"You put things down a storm drain at the bottom of your driveway, and it's going into all of our waterways," said Traude Sander, executive director of Keep the Midlands Beautiful.
While it was a rainy and dreary morning, that didn't stop the volunteers who worked at four locations.
"Obviously important for the community, and I wish more people would come out," volunteer Ray Heath said.
Heath and his granddaughter Emily McCook spent quality time together doing what they felt was important: cleaning up Susie Ebert Island.
"Most of the islands are always really, really trashy, and we just got to help and clean up," McCook said.
This was also an opportunity for the Settlemyer family to do some community service.
"It feels good to give back where we live," mother Lindsay Settlemyre said.
"It was a lot of trash but we did it," sister Adriana Settlemyre said.
Keep the Midlands Beautiful said these events are working, and litter has decreased over the years, but organizers encourage everyone to do their part.
"If everyone would just take their litter home with them, we wouldn't have to have large scale events like this," Sander said.
Keep the Midlands Beautiful said it collected over 9,200 pounds of trash in 2023, but due to the rain on Saturday, the organization said the total would likely be less this year. Next week, they'll tally up the bag counts from all the locations.
