2024 French Creek Watershed Cleanup

Saturday, September 7th

The trash weigh-in, collection and picnic took place at the Cambridge Springs Fairgrounds. Teams registered for specific locations (across the French Creek Watershed) of their choosing and collected trash in the morning and then brought the trash to the fairgrounds between 11am and 3pm. Corporate teams competed for the coveted traveling hellbender trophy and individuals, teams, schools, clubs and organizations were entered into drawings for cash prizes. The schools with the most participants won a cash prize for their science program.

Acutec is the home of the Traveling Hellbender Trophy, until next year!

538 Volunteers collected more than35,000 pounds of trash and planted 80 trees!

Since 1992, people who live, work and play in the French Creek watershed have been joining together once a year to show their love for the river and the land. That year a small group of FCVC friends decided to get together for a day, clean the river they loved by collecting trash, and celebrate with a potluck picnic after. They continued meeting annually and the event grew. By the late 2000s, corporate sponsorships and friendly competitions for participants were added. This included a small industrial scale to weigh trash loaned by a local business.

Fast forward a few decades, and the Cleanup has become the largest day of stewardship in the watershed with hundreds of volunteers and being FCVC’s largest fundraiser of the year. The funds raised at the event through the generosity of our corporate sponsors go toward ensuring we can care for the land we’ve conserved for generations to come.