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Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop joined Volunteer Coordinator Emily Fritz for a Kinston trash-trap cleanout to remember.

It started at the Georgia K. Battle Community Center in the Lincoln City neighborhood, where Sound Rivers’ trash trap is located on Adkin Branch. The multi-disciplinary camp focused on science, the environment and history for children ages 10 through 12.

“We started off in the community center talking about what a watershed is — how every drop of rain falls essentially into a bowl and ends up in the Neuse River,” Samantha said. “They were very excited about the scientific vocabulary.”

The group then headed out to nearby Adkin Branch to clean out the trash trap, one of 10 passive litter-collection devices installed on urban waterways through Sound Rivers’ Litter-Free Rivers program.

“I’ve never seen a group so excited to put on waders and get in the creek,” Samantha laughed. “There was a lot of happy squealing and the girls were just fearless.”

Twenty-three pounds of trash was removed from the trash trap, but Samantha said it was the partnerships involved that made the outing a success. In addition to Lincoln City Rising members being on hand, students from Lenoir Community College served as mentors to the camp kids.

“I think some of these long-standing partnerships we’ve been working on are coming more to fruition,” she said. “We’ve been working with Lenoir Community College for a while; we’ve been working with Lincoln City Rising for a while; we’ve been working in Adkin Branch for a while; and we just got a bunch more youth volunteers to participate. It felt really, really meaningful. It felt like the kind of work we’re trying to do.”

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