Clean Bread and Cheese Creek

Please allow me to introduce our organization. Clean Bread and Cheese Creek is an all volunteer grassroots nonprofit organization whose mission is to restore the natural beauty and improve the environmental quality of the Historic Bread and Cheese Creek, Bear Creek, neighboring waterways, and the community through education, and by mobilizing volunteers for monitoring, restoration and advocacy.

We are an all-volunteer all donation driven not-for-profit organization working to clean up our streams and our communities.

So far our volunteers have removed over 64 tons of debris and garbage including 160 shopping carts, 135 tires and 31 bicycles and an innumerable amount of bottles, cans, plastic bags and fast-food waste while recycling almost half of everything we remove. Any trash our volunteers do not remove washes downstream into the Chesapeake Bay. You can see photos and videos of our previous cleanups here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39935127@N05/collections/72157622687935254/

We are always in need of volunteers and we run our cleanups as a family event with plenty of ways for volunteers to participate. We welcome every type of person of every ability level and every age to contribute and assist with our cleanups. Though it is true we will need people to dig out shopping carts and haul trash to the dumpsters, we need people to run water, food, tools, and trash bags (both empty and full) to individuals in the creek. People to sort recyclables from the debris removed. People will be needed to help at registration, setup food and snacks as well as many other less strenuous activities. We are also authorized to sign-off on Community Service and Service Learning Hours for students. The more people we have, the easier the work will be for everyone. We will provide lunch and snacks as well as gloves. A limited number of tools and waders are available for sign-out, but suggest bringing your own if you have them

Our cleanups are part of an ongoing effort clean the entire stream and Bear Creek by 2014 in preparation for the War of 1812 Bicentennial Celebration. (Bread and Cheese Creek and Bear Creek have been noted highlighted locations on the Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail) The creek played a rather significant part in the Battle of North Point which took place on September 12, 1814. Both the American and British Troops camped along its banks. It is rumored that the young heroes Daniel Wells (19) and Henry McComas (18) used the stream channel to sneak up on British General Robert Ross killing him with their muskets before being killed in return fire. Bear Creek was utilized to disembark British troops for the Battle of North Point. These important parts of our history should not be left the eyesores they currently are.

You can learn more about us and keep up to date through our website at:www.BreadandCheeseCreek.org ; become our friend on FaceBook, follow us on Twitter, and Google+. You can also see photos of our past cleanups on Flickr and our videos on YouTube. You can also subscribe to our Electronic Newsletter.

If you have any comments or questions please contact us. Thank you again for your interest and we hope to see you in the stream!