MOUNT VERNON — Numbers were down for the 2024 River Rally cleanup event, but that doesn’t bother Matt Baugher at all.
Volunteers filled three 10-yard and one 20-yard roll-off containers and collected 44 tires during the Sept. 14 event.
Baugher said that in 2021, his first year as program manager for Knox County Recycling and Litter Prevention, volunteers collected more trash and tires.
“Obviously, things got kind of bad during the pandemic. I think we got closer to 90 tires. We’ve cut that in half,” he said.
Baugher said Mount Vernon’s tire recycling event might have contributed to fewer tires collected during the rally. He also credits Friends of the Kokosing, a volunteer group that cleans the river and access points in the spring.
“People frequently say, ‘We didn’t get as much trash.’ That’s really good. If this event turns into a river hangout because we’ve gotten all the trash, that would be fantastic,” Baugher said.
“Obviously, things accumulate, but instead of just these once-a-year cleanups where we have so much stuff and it takes all day, we’ve been getting after it so frequently, and we’ve been so militant with this being an annual event, that it’s like, ‘No, nothing to fill up.”
The trash goes back to the Ohio EPA for recycling. The tires will become tire mulch.
River Rally volunteers are key
Baugher said the River Rally volunteer turnout was good. Various groups cleaned stretches of the river, and many have a multi-year history of helping with the rally.
“When you are dealing with that level of experience, I don’t have to micromanage,” Baugher said. “When the big day comes up, I have people who have way more river experience than I do.
“Collecting nothing is a win.”
Matt Baugher, Recycling & Litter prevention program manager
“When I have that level of volunteers and expertise, it makes these one-day events super successful,” he added.
Baugher said he gets much credit for the event because he schedules everything.
“But when it comes down to the big day,you’re only as good as your volunteers,” he said.
COVID taught Baugher to rely less on walk-in volunteers and more on preregistered leaders who have experience on the river.
“Obviously, safety is the number one concern here. We can’t have people getting hurt, so what I need are trusted group leaders,” he said.
Having that core group alleviates the pressure to advertise for walk-up volunteers. Baugher said that while he still uses some walk-up volunteers, he wants leaders who know how to be safe on the river.
“I meet with all my group leaders leading up to the event and make sure they have their registration. We have a plan for food, a plan for supplies, a plan for safety,” he said.
“That way on Saturday, you know where you’re supposed to be, what your goal is, and you know your stretch. We’ve already talked about where your trash and tires go.”
Future river rallies
For river rally volunteers, the cleanup is not a “feel good one day a year” event.
“This is not some one-off holiday. These people are living this all the time. Most of these volunteers I work with have full-time jobs and families and responsibilities,” Baugher said.
“When people read this, I want them to know I have a really wholesome and positive energy right now because I’m working with so many wholesome and positive people.”
That energy and effort translates to other cleanup events and a network of people who see trash at Wolf Run Regional Park, for example, and say, “Let’s go get it.”
“We’re identifying places where we’re not waiting on these bigger projects,” Baugher said.
He credits former recycling & prevention coordinator Randy Canterbury for much of the River Rally’s success.
“Randy went through so much trial and error. There was definitely a precedent set,” he said. “I can’t imagine trying to do this for the first year.”
Baugher noted that while he has made some changes, Canterbury’s framework remains.
“I don’t know if other communities have had a Randy Canterbury to lay a framework this big,” he said.
Baugher noted the spring cleanups keep trash off the access points so it doesn’t end up in the river.
“So the river alley has gotten easier and more streamlined because we’re hitting it more often,” he said.
“But we’re still going to keep the one-day September event. Like I said, if it turns into a float and community hangout, that’s fine. We’re still going to do it.”
