In 2004, an Eagle Scout from Troop 89 chose
his Eagle project to be a lake cleanup of White Bear Lake after ice
fishing season. Since that time, the cleanup has become an annual
event and has since been adopted by the White Bear Lake
Conservation District.
Here is an article in the local paper from
March 2010:
Annual Lake Cleanup a Huge
Success!
Eighty volunteers from three local Boy Scout
Troops invaded the frozen waters of White Bear Lake on March 6 and
hauled off 335 pounds of trash. In conjunction with the annual lake
cleanup effort hosted by the White Bear Lake Conservation District,
volunteers from Troop 89 (sponsored by St. Andrew’s Lutheran
Church), Troop 389 (sponsored by the Wildwood Lion’s Club),
and Troop 433 (sponsored by St. Jude of the Lake Church) convened
at Bellaire Beach and spent two hours scouring the lake ice,
pulling cans, bottles, carpet, and other trash off the ice before
it could fall into the lake at ice-out. The first late-winter lake
cleanup was the brainchild of an Eagle Scout from T89, who planned
and led the event in March 2004 as his Eagle Scout Project. After
that initial success, the WBLCD adopted the event and has hosted it
ever since. This year, Mahtomedi Scout Troops collaborated to
reinvigorate the event as a joint community-service project. The
2010 event started with a brief statement from Joe Allaben,
representative from the WBLCD, followed by a few words from event
founder. After that, all 80 participants, including a few
non-Scouting volunteers, fanned out over the lake and collected a
small mountain of trash. Once the cleanup ended, the volunteers
celebrated their success with a fine pizza picnic at the Bellaire
Beach picnic shelter. Plans are already underway to expand the
partnership for next year to include more local Boy Scout Troops so
that even more sections of the lake can be cleaned up in similar
fashion.
When you visit this Cache to Eagle, be sure to
record the keyword on the log. When you have found all 12 Cache to
Eagle locations in the Many Waters District (more to be placed
soon), you can email the keywords associated with each cache to the
Grey Wolf and Wild Rice to receive a Cache to Eagle patch if you
would like one. Supplies are limited.