CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Many people in the Chicago area were up early Saturday, taking part in a volunteer clean-up effort called Chicago River Day.
Friends of the Chicago River organized the event at Beaubien Woods, a forest preserve located on the Far South Side, where some volunteers were paddling canoes while others were on foot picking up trash that blows over from nearby Interstate 80/94.
Margaret Frisbie, executive director of Friends of the Chicago River, said the organization has 2,000 volunteers at 74 locations in Lake County and Cook County all along the 156-mile river.
“And it just feels so good to be outside with all these volunteers who are willing to roll up their sleeves for the river,” Frisbie told WBBM Newsradio.
Last year, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, a lot of the volunteers picked up trash on their own in their neighborhoods, Frisbie said.
This year marks the 20th annual Chicago River Day organized by Friends of the Chicago River.