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Keep Suffolk Beautiful and the Suffolk-Nansemond Chapter of the Izaak Walton League are recruiting volunteers to participate in their upcoming Nansemond River Cleanup.

This event takes place from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Oct. 1 in conjunction with the International Coastal Cleanup, according to a news release. Land and water-based volunteers are needed for the efforts that will focus on the downtown section of the river.

Those wishing to clean from the water must provide their own canoe or kayak, while those who wish to help from land will be offered maps and instruction on specific areas of need.

All land-based participants will meet behind the Burger King in the Suffolk Shopping Center parking lot — 1401-1463 North Main Street — prior to the 9 a.m. start time. Litter grabbers, safety vests, gloves, and trash bags will be provided free of charge.

Volunteers with canoes and kayaks are asked to meet at Constant’s Wharf Park and Marina —100 E Constants Road. Special equipment will be given to watercraft to help them reach into the wetlands from the river.

Keep Suffolk Beautiful is hoping to exceed the results from the March 2022 Nansemond River Cleanup, which attracted 57 participants that collected more than 2,600 pounds of litter.

The Oct. 1 event is Keep Suffolk Beautiful’s first large-scale cleanup since the June 4 Clean the Bay Day.

“It takes a special kind of person to spend time cleaning up someone else’s trash, and the environment definitely needs special people,” Tim Doxey, of the Suffolk-Nansemond Izaak Walton League, said in the release.

Organizers stress that local businesses can play a large part by regularly cleaning their parking lots and regularly tending to their trash cans and dumpsters, the release stated. Most of the area’s untended litter finds its way to the Nansemond River and other local waterways.

For information contact Litter Control at 757-514-7604 or littercontrol@suffolkva.us.