By DOUGLAS W. MOTLEY
Senior Writer
Every fall and spring, the Crestline community gets together for a community cleanup day. In the fall it is cleaning up all the waste that visitors have left behind during summer; in the spring it means cleaning up all the debris left behind by winter storms and preparing for the summer vacationers.
This year, 15 community-minded volunteers showed up at Lake Gregory’s North Shore parking lot bright and early on Saturday, Oct. 18 to participate in the fifth annual Crestline Community Cleanup Day, co-sponsored by the Lake Gregory Yacht Club and the Lake Gregory Company.
Sawyer Micheli picks up a green tennis ball, which he put in his backpack.
The goal of the community-wide cleanup, which got underway shortly after 10 a.m., was to clean up the beaches and trails around Lake Gregory, Lake Drive, Lake Gregory Drive and Top Town Crestline. Those who arrived by 10 a.m. were treated to hot coffee and donuts before outfitting themselves with bright orange or yellow vests, while organizer Rick Dinon, past commodore of the Lake Gregory Yacht Club, demonstrated the various trash grabbing tools that would be used to pick up and drop trash and debris into large plastic trash bags.
This year’s volunteers headed out in different directions, with some going to the south shore of the lake and others headed down to the end of Lake Drive at the Shell gas station, while others went all the way to Top Town Crestline to look for more trash and debris. While heading east on a dirt trail out of the south shore parking lot, the Alpine Mountaineer encountered several groups of people who were unaware of and unprepared for any kind of cleanup duty. However, when made aware of the event, several of them volunteered to pick up small pieces of trash.
Julie Micheli, who was visiting the area, bent down and picked up a candy wrapper and cigarette butt and placed them in a small bag, while her brother, Sawyer Micheli, discovered a green tennis ball and put it in his backpack.
When all was said and done, said Dinon, the volunteers had collected 18 bags of trash, containing about 270 pounds of trash and debris. Most of it, Dinon said, consisted of cigarette butts, bottle caps, bottles and paper and cardboard scraps. One volunteer took a bag of daffodil bulbs to plant for next spring.
Sponsors included the Lake Gregory Company, Crestline Chamber of Commerce, ACE Hardware, Goodwin’s Market and the Lake Gregory Yacht Club.
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