The first year of the Kenai River Spring Cleanup has already seen a larger than expected response, particularly from youth participants.
Kenai River Professional Guide Association member Mark Glassmaker will be helping with the Kids’ River Cleanup Day on Friday but said some schools went out independently.
Glassmaker: “The class that wanted to do it but kind of came in late and decided they wanted to do it anyways was Cook Inlet Academy so they kind of did their own clean up day on Monday and it was really successful, they got a lot of garbage but they kind of did it on their own.”
He added that the event was inspired by the king closures.
Glassmaker: “What prompted this is that the guide association always used to do the take the kids fishing day in May. Being that the river is closed this year to King fishing we still wanted to get the kids out on the river and this seemed like a really good replacement for that event and its non-consumptive and its giving back to the river so it really just seemed like a great idea and it really took off once we introduced it to the community.”
Glassmaker said each student that participates is entered to win prizes at the community bbq that will be held on Saturday and the class that collects the most trash will receive a fishing rod and reel for each student from Kenai River Sportfishing.