By: Sarah Choi and Kelly Kendall
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Creek Week is making a splash for the second year in Orange County. The weeklong event celebrates rivers, lakes and streams in the area.
The celebration runs from now until Sunday, and there are a number of ways to get involved. This Saturday, there will be a rain garden workshop at the Carolina Community Garden at 9 a.m. and an invasive species removal at the Hillsborough Riverwalk at 2 p.m.
UNC students have also organized events to celebrate Creek Week. Tayton Alvis is the vice president of community service for UNC’s chapter of Epsilon Eta, an honors environmental co-ed fraternity. Alvis organized a campus cleanup to commemorate the week.
“It’s something I’ve just really felt passionate about for a long time, and I was like, ‘yeah,’ I want to get everyone involved in this,” he said.
Alvis said he regularly participates in cleanups by himself, but that this is the first one he has organized for a group of people.
He said that the cleanup will involve walking around campus and picking up trash, especially around storm drains. He said that the group will focus on areas like Coker Hall and Kenan Stadium.
“You know, it doesn’t have to be right next to the creek for the trash to drain into the creek, because that’s how a watershed works,” he said. “So it’s good to clean up all the trash you can.”
Alvis said that he sees himself organizing more cleanups for events like Creek Week in the future.
“I always like to give back when I can to the places that I love,” he said.
For a full list of events, visit Orange County’s Creek Week website.