Hundreds of college students volunteer to clean up the McKellar Lake shoreline

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Over the next three weeks, hundreds of college students will make their way to Memphis to clean up trash at McKellar Lake downtown.

Since 2010, volunteers with Living Lands and Waters have bagged hundreds of thousands of pounds of trash, and starting Monday, they are back again to tackle the problem.

After helping to make another section of the McKellar Lake shoreline litter-free, volunteers were feeling good about how their project in Memphis was starting off.

“I like the feeling of making a tangible difference because a lot of what we do is in the future,” said Louisiana State University student Nevaeh Barriere. “You do this now, and you’ll see the results in the future. But now I can clearly see that our efforts are being rewarded.”

The environmental conservation organization has made cleaning up McKellar Lake’s shoreline its goal since 2010.

It’s a mammoth of a three-week effort that would not succeed if it weren’t for hundreds of students saying no to Fort Lauderdale and yes to McKellar Lake.

For the project, 200 students and volunteers from 15 different colleges came to Memphis.

Make no mistake, this is not your typical spring break.

There are no sunny beaches, no ski slopes, just lots of trash to be picked up.

“It says that they’re (the students) go-getters,” said Callie Schaser with Living Lands and Waters. “They want to make a difference. The people, the energy – that are coming out here and so, I think that speaks a lot for them and who they are.”

Once trash is collected, it’s brought to Living Lands and Waters’ floating classroom and barge, where the impact of this project is as clear as the energy of the volunteers.

“I saw a flyer as I was walking to class one day, and it was just awesome,” said Allegheny College student Abi Riedel. “I was like, ‘Oh, yes. I would gladly spend my spring break doing something like this.”

The McKellar Lake cleanup will last three weeks and end on March 21. Typically, volunteers get over 100,000 pounds of trash from the McKellar Lake shoreline.