Clean Bread and Cheese Creek Group Exceeds Goals

Thanks to 115 volunteers who spent their Saturday cleaning along a local waterway, the Clean Bread and Cheese Creek group was able to far exceed its cleanup goal.

The plan was to clean the creek from Merritt Boulevard to Plainfield Road, but the "incredible volunteers" made it to Willow Road, according to group founder John Long.

Volunteers found plenty to keep busy for six hours.

Workers cut up and removed three downed trees that were blocking the stream; removed 30 yards (307 bags) of trash and debris; 20 yards of metal, which included seven shopping carts, five cans of paint, two bicycles, a lawn mower, a wheelchair, an engine head and the bumper of a 1972 Chevelle, Long said.

Other collected debris included seven tires, a cement dual basin sink, a couch, a bowling ball and an office chair.

Bread and Chesse Creek cleanups are hard work, according to Long, but the efforts are successful because organizers make them fun and make sure volunteers are appreciated and treated well.

Cookouts and other meals serviced to volunteers give the events a picnic feel, Long believes, and helps bring the group together.

Food left over from cleanup gatherings is donated to St. Rita's Table, a St. Rita Church food program for the homeless and needy of the community, according to Long.

Clean Bread and Cheese Creek is a nonprofit organization with no paid staff members and relies completely on volunteers and donations to clean and reestore the environment in Dundalk, Long said.

"Although we had help and volunteers from many organizations we would like to thank the following: Baltimore County Department of Environmental Protection and Sustainability, the Baltimore County Highway Administration, The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay’s Project Clean Stream, Sonic, the Baltimore Arts and Music Project (BAMP), Chesapeake Quality Traders, UPS, Hamilton Federal Savings Bank, Towson University’s History Club and Circle K, Moments By Thomas Photography, The Gray Manor and North Shire Community Association, the CCBC Geocache Club, Gotugo Portable Restrooms, Cambridge Iron and Steel, Entenmanns’s Bakery, Gold’s Gym Dundalk, UPS, Regional Property Management and more," Long wrote in an email to Dundalk Patch. "Thank you volunteers and sponsors, we couldn't do it without you!"