Volunteers join forces to beautify community

The Keep Columbia County Beautiful committee will team up with volunteers Saturday in an effort to make the county spic-and-span.

The event, dubbed the Great American Cleanup, is a nationwide project committed to cleaning up communities throughout the country.

"April is Keep America Beautiful (Month)," said Stephanie Thomas-Rees, the special projects coordinator for Columbia County Community and Leisure Services. "We want to promote beautification throughout the county."

Thomas-Rees said the cleanup event, which is held in conjunction with Keep America Beautiful Inc., includes picking up trash from adopted highways, school campuses and streams and planting trees or removing graffiti.

So far, she said, a total of 50 volunteers from five organizations have registered to participate. She said the committee would like to have more volunteers, asking that groups begin cleaning up early Saturday morning. Groups willing to participate, she said, need to select a designated area and call the county's Community and Leisure Services department for materials such as safety vests, latex gloves and garbage bags.

After the cleanup, the teams will meet at the Savannah Rapids Pavilion in Evans where the inaugural Outdoor Expo will kick off.

Those festivities will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will feature 12 organizations demonstrating outdoor activities centered on natural resources such as camping, canoeing safety and water conservation.

At another weekend event, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be holding their second Thurmond Lake Spring Fest and five-mile run and walk, starting at 7:15 a.m. on Saturday. An event called "The Best Dam Ride Ever-The Sequel" also will take place at 7 a.m. on Sunday. All events will begin or take place at the Below Dam Park in South Carolina.

For more information about the cleanup, call Stephanie Thomas-Rees at 868-3349, or for information about the events at the lake, visit www.sas.usace.army or call Park Ranger Jill Davis at (800) 533-3478, ext. 1172.