Stewards of the Earth

Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church TeamSupports Friends of Sugar Creek for a

Creek Clean Up Day

Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church joined with Friends of Sugar Creek, a 501c(3) organization

Like two streams flowing together…

Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church joined with Friends of Sugar Creek, a 26-

year-old 501c(3) organization

To remove truckloads of trash from Sugar Creek in Montgomery County Indiana

The Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church Sugar Creek Clean Up Team

The Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church Team included members from 8 … 80 and

Four Wabash College students.

We walked the shoreline filling bags with trash as we went.

Bags and bags of trash picked up along the shore.

Always on the lookout for more trash as we went.

We recovered an old tarp…We recovered an old tarp…

And packed it up for disposal

We found lots of bottles and cans. Some even full…

But we emptied those before disposing of them.

We found five tires, including this truck tire that had to be rolled half a mile to the take out site.

Even a commode…

While some of us walked, five members of the team paddled, pulled, and pushed canoes loaded with debris they picked up from the creek bed.

After two miles on the creek, the canoes were riding low in the water, weighted down with trash.

This kayak tended by Friends of Sugar Creek on another part of the stream carried all it could!

And at the end of the two-mile debris tour, the canoes are removed and ….

The trash is loaded up, to be transported to the final collection site.

With this and more removed during the Fall 2013 Clean Up…

A more pristine Sugar Creek continues to flow, inviting new visitors to enjoy and use it.

Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church Stewardship Committee

• Has committed to continue its support for the Friends of Sugar Creek Clean Up in 2014 and 2015.

• And the WAPC Sugar Creek Clean Up Team commits to cleaning the Rock River Ridge Landing shoreline and creek bed in those years.

If Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church wins the Super Service Challenge…

• Friends of Sugar Creek will purchase:– Two canoes @ $495 each– 2 kayaks @ $295 each– Personal safety flotation devices for

each boat @$35 each.– Paddles for each boat @$30 each

– For a total of $1970 • These will be used in future

stream clean ups, water quality monitoring, canoe/kayak safety education by Friends of Sugar Creek, WAPC for fellowship activities, AND

For more family float trips like this one.

Submitted by Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church Sugar Creek Clean Up Team,

Crawfordsville, IN

Narrative of Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church TeamApplication for Super Service Challenge Grant.

Stewards of the Earth:Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church Team

Supports Friends of Sugar Creek with a Creek Clean Up DayLike two streams flowing together to make a larger one, a team from Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church in

Crawfordsville, Indiana joined with the Friends of Sugar Creek, a 501c(3) organization, to help with a fall clean up that removed truckloads of trash from this scenic waterway in west central Indiana.

This joint effort by the Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church (WAPC) and Friends of Sugar Creek (FSC), whose mission is “to protect, restore, and promote appreciation for Sugar Creek and its watershed,” began when the Deacons of the church organized a celebration of Earth Day in April 2013. The events of the day generated discussion within the congregation about how we could be better stewards of the earth in our local community. In light of that discussion, the Stewardship Committee, which usually focuses almost entirely on stewardship of financial resources in support of the church budget, proposed that WAPC participate in the FSC-organized fall clean up of Sugar Creek, a beautiful stream that flows diagonally from the northeast to the southwest through Montgomery County, IN. This led to the formation of the WAPC Sugar Creek Clean Up Team that participated in the clean up on Saturday, September 14, 2013.

The WAPC Sugar Creek Clean Up Team, consisting of 14 members of the congregation ranging from an 8-year-old to an 82-year-old, and joined by four Wabash College students, picked up trash along a mile of shore line and removed debris from the creek bed itself over a two-mile stretch of the creek from the Rock River Ridge Landing to Younts Mill. Thirteen members of the team walked the shoreline and over a mile of the rail trail that crosses Sugar Creek at Rock River Ridge Landing filling bags with trash. One member of the church team and the four Wabash students paddled, pushed, and pulled three rented or borrowed canoes two miles down stream, picking up debris as they went. By the end of the day, the Wabash Avenue Church team had collected two pickup truck loads of trash, including five automobile or truck tires and one commode. Other groups organized by the Friends of Sugar Creek took responsibility for cleaning up other sections of the stream. In all, parts of several campers washed into the creek by a spring flood, lots of beverage bottles and cans, pieces of awnings, and over 25 tires were collected in the ten miles or more of the creek that were cleaned during the day.

Building on the success and the good fellowship of the day, the Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church stewardship committee has committed the congregation’s team to participating in future Sugar Creek clean ups. The team will assume responsibility for cleaning the stretch of the creek from the Rock River Ridge Landing to Younts Mill in 2014 and 2015.

If the Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church Sugar Creek Clean Up Team project wins in the Super Service Challenge we would propose that the money be used by the Friends of Sugar Creek to purchase two canoes and two kayaks, paddles for each boat, and an assortment of safety floatation devices to be used by the Friends organization in its future clean ups, family float trips, and water quality monitoring activities. The cost of this equipment would total about $2000. The equipment would also be available to WAPC for adult fellowship and youth activities designed to promote environmental stewardship and water safety.