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The Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway sponsored another cleanup on a hot summer day, with 23 volunteers remove an amazing estimated 4,635 pounds (over 2 tons) of trash from areas throughout Patapsco State Park. PHG members originally found these two sites were old dumps with heavy junk and trash that needed cleaned up. Because it was so difficult and heavy to haul this trash up the hillside from the stream, and out to the road, we needed strong, willing adults up to the task. SC&H Group helped us last year and were up for the challenge! Twenty volunteers from the SC&H Group took a day from their usual accounting work to help clean up 2 areas off River Road and Thistle Road. Special thanks to all the people who helped make this possible, including Matt Roberson who organized this through the SC&H Group, All the SC&H Group employees who helped, the Patapsco Heritage Greenway members and volunteers who also helped, Naomi King, from BVU Volunteer Central who referred the SC&H Group to us, Shawn, the Security Guard who allowed our volunteers to temporarily park on Simkins property, and especially Baltimore County Highways, who had to remove all the trash collected from these two separate sites! This group collected more pounds of trash than any other cleanup in 2008!

The Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway sponsored another cleanup inside of the Catonsville Campus of the Community College of Baltimore with Dr. Sanow and other CCBC Sociology students to clean up a section of stream inside the Catonsville Campus. Even though it was a small group, in just a couple of hours they managed to pick up a lot of trash! Special thanks to the campus maintenance helpers who removed the trash for us! What a beautiful stream, hidden right on campus!

The Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway sponsored another cleanup on a beautiful summer day, with 40 volunteers remove an amazing estimated 3,095 pounds of trash from Catonsville Park. Thirty-six volunteers from the Reznick Group took a day from their usual accounting work to help clean up an area off of Garnet Avenue adjacent to Catonsville Park and along a section of Sawmill Branch that runs throughout the park. Special thanks to all the people who helped make this possible, including Cole Austin who organized this through the Rezneck Group, All the Reznick Group employees who helped, the Patapsco Heritage Greenway members and volunteers who also helped, Naomi King, from BVU Volunteer Central who referred the Rezneck Group to us, Baltimore County Rec. & Parks who gave us access to restrooms and picnic tables, and especially Baltimore County Highways, who had to bring two large pick up tracks to remove all the trash collected from this cleanup! This group collected the most bags ever during one cleanup p- an amzing 101 filled bags of trash!

On a hot and humid Saturday, 11 volunteers helped to remove 620 pounds of trash from the Patapsco River and its banks in only two hours! Special thanks to all the volunteers who survived the heat this day!

On a bright sunny Friday morning, over 200 students, teachers and parent volunteers helped cleanup approximately a one-mile section of Deep Run. Students were organized in eight clean-up teams, one first-aid team and delivery teams, collecting an estimated 7,743 pounds of trash from this watershed. First Place Team 3, with Teacher Jeanne Garland and Parent Chaperone Mr. Gantt, removed over a ton of trash by themselves! Special thanks to all the students, teachers and parents and Patapsco Heritage Greenway members, and Howard County highways who came out to help and make this the biggest and most successful cleanup along Race Road, in only a few hours!

Theresa Spliedt is the stream watch captain who closely monitors several of the stream sections along Herbert Run in Arbutus, Halethorpe and parts of Catonsville. Along with girl scouts of service unit 51, the scouts often conduct stream cleanups, keeping the streams in good shape. Special thanks to all the girls and their parents who joined in. A special visit from Nancy Pentz, from Baltimore County's Dept. of Environmental Protection taught the girls how to properly complete a stream watch report and explained the issues facing our streams today!

Over 50 vollunteers came out to help clean up the stream that flows under Edmondson Avenue, parallel to Arbutus Avenue in Catonsville, Maryland! It was a beautiful sunny day and nearby neighbors came out to help, along with energetic local college and high school students, as well as other Patapsco Heritage Greenway members and other helpers!

From 1 -4 pm, youth group members participating in the 40 hour famine from local churches and other Patapsco Heritage Greenway members and Catonsville neighbors and other friends came to help to clean up an area off of Catonsville park, where there has been illegal dumping going on for a number of years at the dead end roads of Dunbar and Garnet Avenues. Although we were able to get quite a bit of debris out of the hillside from Dunbar Avenue, we will have to plan another cleanup or two to remove the excessive amount of trash closer to Garnet Avenue. Thanks to all the youth group members and other volunteers who helped remove so much trash from Catonsville Parkland near Sawmill Branch!

Fifty six 4th grade students and 17 chaperones from the Resurrection St. Paul's Church joined in to help the Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway cleanup both riverbanks of the Patapsco River, located along Baltimore and Howard Counties. They removed 38 bags of trash weighing about 1,000 pounds. Great job to all of our volunteers, including the two students who fell in the water within the first 5 minutes of the cleanup!

Scouts and family members from Tiger Scout Troop 794 and other neighbors helped clean up a small stream off of Loudon Avenue, as well as along the roadside. Thanks to their efforts within two hours, the roadside was transformed and a large truck tire was removed from the stream, blocking the flow of the water. Thanks to all the helpers for a great job!