Anyone age 13 or older is invited to volunteer at one or both of this year's Connoquenessing Creek Cleanup events.

The first Saturday cleanup event will be Aug. 29 followed by another Sept. 12.

The stretch of creek to be cleaned up during this, the Allegheny Aquatic Alliance's ninth year, is from the Major Washington canoe and kayak launch on Ash Stop Road in Forward Township to the Allegheny Aquatic Alliance launch in Ellwood City, Lawrence County.

The group has removed about 6,000 tires and 550,000 pounds of trash from the creek so far, said Mike Handley, president of the alliance.

Volunteers will meet at Living Faith Baptist Church, 1718 Route 588, Fombell, which is just outside Zelienople.

Breakfast provided by the church will be available to volunteers, and gloves, shovels, water and sports drinks, snacks, and other cleanup necessities will be handed out after teams are selected by Handley.

Teams will enter the creek with canoes and on boats at their designated access points to walk their section of the waterway and load tires, garbage and debris into the boats.

Those who do not wish to get in the creek will be sent to various access points to help teams unload debris from the boats and load it into trailers.

Still others will serve as drivers, transporting the refuse to a designated dump site. Workers at one of the two dump sites will help dispose of the debris by laying tires out in long rows, depositing metal into a recycling receptacle and trash into a Dumpster.

A lunch of subs and cookies will once again be provided by Subway of Zelienople.

Volunteers are asked to wear closed-toe shoes and old clothes, and to plan to work at least half a day.

Most volunteers work the entire day, Handley said.

“Volunteers always tell me 'It feels great to do the hard work and see what we've accomplished,'” he said.

Handley said a woman in her 70s called him to say she would like to volunteer at the cleanup, but could probably not contribute because of her age and abilities.

He replied that a 100-year-old man from Butler has volunteered at the cleanups in all eight previous years, and the alliance always finds an important task for him.

“I told her “Come to the cleanup. We'll find you a job,'” Handley said.

He said volunteers ages 13 to 17 need to have their parent or guardian sign a release form prior to the minor participating in the cleanup.

Handley said items found in the creek in past years include a concrete coffin vault that had washed into the creek and floated a good distance downstream, tractor-trailer frames, 15-foot tall agricultural tanks, a camper frame and multiple Dumpsters.

Alliance board members Rip Davis and Jeff Kline team up to engineer the removal of large items at each year's cleanups, Handley said.

The idea to coordinate a cleanup event for the Connoquenessing came from Handley's early paddling days on the creek, when he had to go around a full-size lawn tractor in his kayak.

“That really kind of made me mad,” Handley said.

He said some polluted spots in the creek are the result of illegal dumping by residents and contractors, mainly of items the individual would otherwise have to pay to discard.

Shingles, tires, refrigerators, televisions and other items are pulled from the creek annually.

But since the cleanups have been held, property owners along the creek who have seen the hard work of volunteers each August and September are now policing their land more stringently to prevent dumping, Handley said.

He stressed that the cleanups would be impossible without the support and collaboration of many partners, including the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau and this year, Diehl Toyota of Butler.

Diehl donated $14,000 to the alliance to complete the two cleanups and pursue its mission of clearing the Connoquenessing Creek of trash and debris.

He also appreciates the hard work of volunteers who have come out over the years to help with the cleanup. “It makes me really proud of our volunteers and their hard work and what we've accomplished,” Handley said.

More information on the Aug. 29 and Sept. 12 Connoquenessing Creek Cleanups is available by searching “Allegheny Aquatic Alliance” on Facebook.