Martin Schirra pushes his wife Debbie and a canoe full of junk through a shallow spot on the Connoquenessing Creek under Ash Stop Road during the annual cleanup effort on Saturday,

RENFREW — Volunteers battled scattered showers Saturday at the third annual Connoquenessing Creek Cleanup.

Crews gathered at the Beacon Hotel to remove trash from a 15-mile stretch of the creek spanning from the Butler Athletic Field in the city to the Forward Township baseball fields.

Christina Handley, president of the Allegheny Aquatic Alliance and organizer of the effort, said just under 85 volunteers removed nearly 500 tires and three Dumpsters’ worth of garbage from the waterway.

Volunteers removed 85,000 pounds of garbage, including nearly 900 tires, during the event’s first two years.

“The creek is 50 miles long and we’ve got about 25 miles cleaned,” Handley said.

Handley said next year she plans to have two cleanups of the creek.

“I’d like to thank all the volunteers and sponsors because without their support we couldn’t have been as successful,” Handley said.

The event is organized by the Allegheny Aquatic Alliance, a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving regional waterways.