Staff report
Mike Lambert, an assistant naturalist at Dan Nicholas Park, has won a statewide Big Sweep award for improving community involvement.
As coordinator for Big Sweep in Rowan County, Lambert rounded up 109 volunteers to help with the fall effort.
Judy Bolin, N.C. Big Sweep president, noted in a press release that community involvement in Rowan County has increased by more than 1,100 percent in one year, from 9 volunteers in 2007 to 109 in 2008.
“More than 1,000 percent increase in volunteers from the previous year is commendable,” Bolin said. “Mike did an awesome job.”
Ken Crutchfield, chairman of N.C. Big Sweep, also commended Lambert’s efforts. “The more volunteers we have, the more litter we can retrieve from our environment, and the more people we can teach about becoming good stewards of our environment.”
Big Sweep officials cite the importance of the cleanups because litter can last hundreds of years, hurting the economy and the environment.
The Big Sweep fall cleanup is part of the International Coastal Cleanup, a global effort to rid the environment of debris. Approximately 70 countries all around the world participate in the cleanup.
All 100 counties in North Carolina participate in the Big Sweep component of the international effort.
N.C. Big Sweep was founded in 1987 as Beach Sweep, a coastal cleanup with 1,000 volunteers.
The cleanup expanded inland and was renamed in 1989 to become N.C. Big Sweep, the nation’s first statewide waterway cleanup.
During its 22-year-history, almost 270,000 volunteers have retrieved more than 9 million pounds of debris from North Carolina’s watersheds.
Rowan County Big Sweep volunteers have concentrated on areas in and around High Rock Lake as well as Grants Creek.
To find out more about Big Sweep, visit the Web site at www.ncbigsweep.org.