Clean-Up Crew Grows/ Tackles Trash at McKellar

It was exciting to see -- about 80 people, many of them students from the University of Memphis and Christian Brothers University, down at McKellar Lake on a Saturday morning picking up trash.

Just like in the Wolf River Harbor, the culprit is "us" and our litter. What's tossed on the street in South Memphis is carried by rain into Nonconnah Creek and then into McKellar Lake. Some of it makes its way into the Mississippi, but large amounts are trapped at McKellar. Colton Cockrum, his students, and City Beautiful decided to do something about it. The volunteers are growing in number and commitment with long-term goals of a carrot and stick approach: a bottle bill to encourage people to return bottles for cash and enforcement of fees for littering.

Join the effort: Oct. 1 and Nov. 12, 8 - 10 a.m., meet on the Jack Carley Causeway to President's Island.