250 volunteers coming to north-central Iowa to clean up Winnebago, Shell Rock rivers
MASON CITY — About 250 volunteers are coming to the Mason City area starting this weekend as they’ll spend a lot of time in canoes cleaning up a pair of area rivers. Iowa Project AWARE, which stands for A Watershed Awareness River Expedition, will be focusing their efforts on 61.5 miles of the Winnebago and Shell Rock Rivers in Cerro Gordo, Worth and Floyd counties.
Event director Jenna Pfeiffer says this is the 22nd year for the Iowa Project AWARE event. “Throughout the week, volunteers can expect to take to the river for about five hours or more a day and clean up the entire river and take out trash, and when they get back to camp, we have some educational elements for them that go over some of the local history in the area as well as some water quality and different river things along the way, and it’s really just a great time all around.”
Pfeiffer says volunteers have found some very interesting things in the state’s rivers throughout the 22 years of the event. “We have found anything from a big freezer full of meat that was still rotting when we opened it up, you can only imagine how that smelled. We found different old porcelain dolls in the river, fridges, old farm equipment, a lot of old tires, sometimes you’ll see some really old children’s toys that have floated down the river. There was a bowling ball we’ve pulled out before.”
Pfeiffer says the public is welcome to attend some of their educational sessions either at East Park in Mason City or the Tosanak Recreation Area near Marble Rock. “If you guys have a chance to see some educational events, they are free to the public. Just bring a lawn chair and you’re welcome to join us. The first round is at 4:30 and then we have some other ones starting at 7:30. Just come on over to camp. We’re going to be in East Park through Tuesday, and then on Wednesday, we’ll be at the Tosanak Recreation Area. Just bring out a lawn chair and get ready to listen and have a good time with Iowa Project AWARE.”
For more information on the week-long event, head to iowaprojectaware.org
