Keep America Beautiful affiliate Keep Knoxville Beautiful (KKB) and the Tennessee Clean Water Network (TCWN), with a grant from the Aslan Foundation, are working in tandem to clean up Goose Creek, an impaired urban creek in and around Mary Vestal Park in South Knoxville.

TCWN’s part of the project focuses primarily on educating citizens who live near the creek, while KKB  is doing the hands-on work of organizing multiple cleanups this year. The first took place in May with local Aveda Salons hair stylists; the second took place in June. The focus on Goose Creek is part of KKB’s larger focus on South Knoxville, its Community of the Year through June 2017.
 
Thus far, KKB engaged nearly 30 volunteers on the two cleanups. The volunteers removed nearly 2,800 pounds of garbage and debris from the creek. Twenty scrap tires, a grocery cart and an office chair were among the many items removed from Goose Creek.
 
Keep Knoxville Beautiful Executive Director Patience Melnick indicated that a third cleanup is tentatively scheduled for August. For more information, visit keepknoxvillebeautiful.org. See more photos from the cleanups here and here.