East of the River | June 2007 | A Bittersweet Year on the Anacostia

A Bittersweet Year on the Anacostia

Young Riverkeepers Reflect On Learning, Loss and Accomplishments

by: Holly Jones

In late afternoon, the Anacostia River takes on a sparkle that belies its standing as one of the country’s most polluted rivers. With stadium construction ended for the day, the sounds of oars as rowers go by and the cries of birds soaring overhead can be heard. The river is alive with activity. But on May 22, the focus was on a ceremony taking place riverside. While governments in the District and Maryland continue to discuss the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation’s fate and stormwater permit terms with activists, 13 Earth Conservation Corps members graduated after a year of working as the river’s stewards and as a voice for their community.

They spent hours in its mud, picking up trash. Almost all African-American and from East Washington, they led groups of largely white volunteers in cleanups, learned to give talks on environmental issues and produced short documentaries about problems plaguing Anacostia. Many struggled to balance two worlds – the corps’s supportive environment and the high-crime neighborhoods they returned to each night. Eleven didn’t complete the program. The first to complete his required hours was murdered a month shy of graduation. A few graduates glanced toward the river as they stepped off the stage, certificate in hand. But the cheers and applause of this full house of family and friends pulled them back to this moment of triumph. These 13 got into and completed a program 148 tried to enter. They’d made it.

First Impressions
Like most corps members, 19-year-old Chauncey Redd had little awareness of the river’s problems before joining. “I used to go down to Anacostia Park and fish once in a blue moon, but I didn’t know much [about the river],” says Redd. That changed quickly last July.

The Earth Conservation Corps kicked off its 2006-2007 year in early July, when 148 applicants applied and interviewed. Thirty-eight then took the next step: a three-day sink-or-swim boot camp spent cleaning the river and its shorelines. This helped the applicants and staff determine who was right for the program’s challenges. It wasn’t easy. Temperatures climbed, and the work got dirty. But each young person selected would receive a stipend and health insurance. If they completed the required 1,700 hours of service, they would receive scholarship funds.

Even though they left muddy, tired and were sometimes teased as they headed back into Anacostia, the program and its promise made sense for the 25 selected. One of those 25 was 19-year-old Ashley Boyd, a young woman with a sharp sense of humor and well-groomed nails the Anacostia’s mud could never get the best of. No one in her family can remember a time the river was clean, and the first time Boyd saw the river up close, with other corps members, she thought it was terrible. “It looked like a big pool of coffee. I used to throw trash on the ground, but I stopped afterwards.”

Challenges
“We’re trying to tackle two things: clean one of the most polluted rivers and [help] disadvantaged youth,” says Brian Van Wye, Anacostia riverkeeper, explaining the corps’s mission. He and the staff helped the graduates face and grow through many challenges.

For some, it was a first job. For almost all, interfacing with volunteers and media was a new experience. Friends and families questioned why they didn’t take higher-paying jobs. A few struggled to reconcile their mission to protect the environment with their Anacostia community’s need for the jobs that developing protected riverfront land could bring. And then there were the surprises of departures and winter.

“Sometimes I didn’t get on the boat in the winter ‘cause on the river, it’s ten times colder than when you’re standing on the corner,” Boyd remembers. She and 26-year-old Tim Critchfield were in the riverkeeper program and went on the water most days, cold or hot. Critchfield is passionate about the river, and although quiet at first, he has a joking style that can make others, like Boyd, forget just how dirty or cold they are. Critchfield loves being outdoors, regardless of temperature, but he also was surprised how many didn’t complete the year.

Of the 25 original corps members, only 14 completed the hours required to graduate. Some needed to make more money for their families. Others decided the program wasn’t for them. Critchfield never thought of leaving, though. “I never look back. No matter how hard it is, I finish the job.” Three of the eight in Redd’s Youth Media Arts program left, but he didn’t. “There were plenty of times I wanted to quit…I was just ready to be done. But I really want to go to school.”

The promise of scholarship funds helped many corps members focus through the hard moments. The support of the staff and other corps members also helped. While corps members describe the staff as “pretty strict” and as “clean-aholics,” they also appreciate them. Redd explains that the best part was “just coming in every day and seeing the same people…work became fun, and we grew into a family.”

Josh Burch, Anacostia River service coordinator, worked closely with the corps members on a daily basis. “We definitely train, but we want to work with young people to find resolutions to overcome shortcomings and issues…They have different pressures on them. Here the pressure is professional. In the non-work environment, they’re in a drastically different world. There’s pressure on both ends.”

Seeing the corps members learn to manage these pressures is one of the great rewards of working with them, though. Members who talked about quitting are now graduating. Ones who once refused to get into the mud were guiding volunteers through it by spring, just in time for Earth Day.

Cleaning The Anacostia River, Educating A Community
By Earth Day Cleanup on April 22, graduation was in sight for the corps members, and they knew what they were doing on the river and with volunteers. They warmed up over 200 volunteers with jumping jacks and stretches and then led them onto Kingman Island, talking about the river, pollution and their efforts every step of the way. The Earth Day cleanup was one of the largest they’d led, but during their term, they guided 1,779 volunteers and participated in 86 service activities.

“It’s a different experience with each [group],” says Redd. “To see people come down and see all that trash, and then they get dirty. I guess that changes their minds a little about the river.” Redd believes volunteers who see the trash understand the problem, but wishes more people “knew what I went through this year, to see all that trash, all that hard work to clean it up, and then it’s done again.” He wishes more would “just come out and pitch in, even for five minutes.”

Boyd has worked with volunteers from all over, some out of town, some in college. She wishes more people understood how dirty the river is and that “there are signs everywhere saying ‘Don’t Litter,’ but people don’t care.”

A Tragic Turn
Aaron Leon Teeter, a 19-year-old corps member in the Youth Media Arts program, was gunned down near his Anacostia home on April 28. Rebecca Renard, Youth Media Arts director, calls him “an incredible guy for a lot of different reasons, [including] his seriousness about changing his life and his community… He was on this path to self-reclamation and stood out.”

Teeter planned to pursue a degree in early childhood education and help children avoid problems before they start. He had witnessed his friend’s death at school and knew how early in life people could turn violent. In an essay completed days before his death, Teeter recalled the killing: “I thought school was supposed to be the safest place for a student. But that was not true, and the security was lacking that day. After that, I did not go to school for more than a month.” He then asked his readers and the world: “As we all know, drugs kill, and violence is bad…If you ever…feel like you want to do something violent, ask yourself this: What will be the consequences?”

Teeter’s death underscores the Earth Conservation Corps’s importance in the community and its members’ challenges. Van Wye explains, “This is the most at-risk youth group in the capital. It’s our 10th member to be murdered in just 15 years. [These are] people defying the odds and making it work… Aaron had turned his life around.” Teeter exemplified one of the program’s primary goals – youth development. He had made it. And as the remaining corps members moved into their final month of community service, none could forget his all-too-short life.

Graduation Day
Over 100 people cheered on the 13 graduates. The crowd spilled out of the room onto the deck overlooking the Anacostia River. Several people, including Teeter’s mother, said the program saved their children and made them into adults. In a moving acknowledgement, Teeter’s sister thanked the Earth Conservation Corps for being “a shining light in a troubled society.”

Now these 13 graduates will move on to college, internships and other jobs. They’ll take the lessons learned about the river and the world back into the community and build better futures for themselves, with the support of two families – the ones they had before June 2006 and the Earth Conservation Corps family they found beside the Anacostia River.

Holly Jones is a freelance writer living in Washington, DC, and past contributor to The Hill Rag and East of the River. She can be reached at Holly_H_Jones@yahoo.com

A Year On The River

While river restoration efforts moved slowly, if at all, on other fronts…

Approximately 70,000 tons of sediment, trash and toxics, carried by stormwater, continue to wash into the river each year.
In the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s 2006 State of the Anacostia River Report, the river received a score of 19 out of 100 possible points, up from 17 in 2004.
The Anacostia Waterfront Corporation’s recommended environmental standards will soon be voted on by the AWC board, but implementation may be delayed until the local government determines how the AWC, the only governmental or quasi-governmental entity in the Anacostia Watershed with the specific mission to restore the river, will be folded into other District agencies.
Montgomery County’s stormwater permit expired in July 2006 and has not yet been renewed. However, the delay is largely a result of activists pressing for stricter standards to limit pollution in stormwater and the Anacostia River.
The District and Maryland have listed the river as trash-impaired and are now working with the EPA to first develop trash reduction strategies and then trash TDML (Total Daily Maximum Load) standards.

The Earth Conservation Corps members from the 2006-2007 program year…

Led 1,779 volunteers in restoration activities
Escorted 620 participants on Anacostia River patrols
Participated in 86 service activities
Gave 6,581 hours of service
Filled 5,341 bags of trash from the Anacostia River and its tributaries
Pulled 1,964 tires from alongside the river and its tributaries (118 tons – the estimated weight of the trash bags and tires combined)
Restored 185 native plants along the river’s shores
Planted 303 trees (the majority planted in partnership with Casey Trees Foundation)

Planted 3,260 wetland plants (the majority planted in partnership with the Anacostia Watershed Society)


<--previous Page	Print This Page
A Bittersweet Year on the Anacostia
Young Riverkeepers Reflect On Learning, Loss and Accomplishments
by: Holly Jones
In late afternoon, the Anacostia River takes on a sparkle that belies its standing as one of the country’s most polluted rivers. With stadium construction ended for the day, the sounds of oars as rowers go by and the cries of birds soaring overhead can be heard. The river is alive with activity. But on May 22, the focus was on a ceremony taking place riverside. While governments in the District and Maryland continue to discuss the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation’s fate and stormwater permit terms with activists, 13 Earth Conservation Corps members graduated after a year of working as the river’s stewards and as a voice for their community. They spent hours in its mud, picking up trash. Almost all African-American and from East Washington, they led groups of largely white volunteers in cleanups, learned to give talks on environmental issues and produced short documentaries about problems plaguing Anacostia. Many struggled to balance two worlds – the corps’s supportive environment and the high-crime neighborhoods they returned to each night. Eleven didn’t complete the program. The first to complete his required hours was murdered a month shy of graduation. A few graduates glanced toward the river as they stepped off the stage, certificate in hand. But the cheers and applause of this full house of family and friends pulled them back to this moment of triumph. These 13 got into and completed a program 148 tried to enter. They’d made it. First Impressions Like most corps members, 19-year-old Chauncey Redd had little awareness of the river’s problems before joining. “I used to go down to Anacostia Park and fish once in a blue moon, but I didn’t know much [about the river],” says Redd. That changed quickly last July. The Earth Conservation Corps kicked off its 2006-2007 year in early July, when 148 applicants applied and interviewed. Thirty-eight then took the next step: a three-day sink-or-swim boot camp spent cleaning the river and its shorelines. This helped the applicants and staff determine who was right for the program’s challenges. It wasn’t easy. Temperatures climbed, and the work got dirty. But each young person selected would receive a stipend and health insurance. If they completed the required 1,700 hours of service, they would receive scholarship funds. Even though they left muddy, tired and were sometimes teased as they headed back into Anacostia, the program and its promise made sense for the 25 selected. One of those 25 was 19-year-old Ashley Boyd, a young woman with a sharp sense of humor and well-groomed nails the Anacostia’s mud could never get the best of. No one in her family can remember a time the river was clean, and the first time Boyd saw the river up close, with other corps members, she thought it was terrible. “It looked like a big pool of coffee. I used to throw trash on the ground, but I stopped afterwards.” Challenges “We’re trying to tackle two things: clean one of the most polluted rivers and [help] disadvantaged youth,” says Brian Van Wye, Anacostia riverkeeper, explaining the corps’s mission. He and the staff helped the graduates face and grow through many challenges. For some, it was a first job. For almost all, interfacing with volunteers and media was a new experience. Friends and families questioned why they didn’t take higher-paying jobs. A few struggled to reconcile their mission to protect the environment with their Anacostia community’s need for the jobs that developing protected riverfront land could bring. And then there were the surprises of departures and winter. “Sometimes I didn’t get on the boat in the winter ‘cause on the river, it’s ten times colder than when you’re standing on the corner,” Boyd remembers. She and 26-year-old Tim Critchfield were in the riverkeeper program and went on the water most days, cold or hot. Critchfield is passionate about the river, and although quiet at first, he has a joking style that can make others, like Boyd, forget just how dirty or cold they are. Critchfield loves being outdoors, regardless of temperature, but he also was surprised how many didn’t complete the year. Of the 25 original corps members, only 14 completed the hours required to graduate. Some needed to make more money for their families. Others decided the program wasn’t for them. Critchfield never thought of leaving, though. “I never look back. No matter how hard it is, I finish the job.” Three of the eight in Redd’s Youth Media Arts program left, but he didn’t. “There were plenty of times I wanted to quit…I was just ready to be done. But I really want to go to school.” The promise of scholarship funds helped many corps members focus through the hard moments. The support of the staff and other corps members also helped. While corps members describe the staff as “pretty strict” and as “clean-aholics,” they also appreciate them. Redd explains that the best part was “just coming in every day and seeing the same people…work became fun, and we grew into a family.” Josh Burch, Anacostia River service coordinator, worked closely with the corps members on a daily basis. “We definitely train, but we want to work with young people to find resolutions to overcome shortcomings and issues…They have different pressures on them. Here the pressure is professional. In the non-work environment, they’re in a drastically different world. There’s pressure on both ends.” Seeing the corps members learn to manage these pressures is one of the great rewards of working with them, though. Members who talked about quitting are now graduating. Ones who once refused to get into the mud were guiding volunteers through it by spring, just in time for Earth Day. Cleaning The Anacostia River, Educating A Community By Earth Day Cleanup on April 22, graduation was in sight for the corps members, and they knew what they were doing on the river and with volunteers. They warmed up over 200 volunteers with jumping jacks and stretches and then led them onto Kingman Island, talking about the river, pollution and their efforts every step of the way. The Earth Day cleanup was one of the largest they’d led, but during their term, they guided 1,779 volunteers and participated in 86 service activities. “It’s a different experience with each [group],” says Redd. “To see people come down and see all that trash, and then they get dirty. I guess that changes their minds a little about the river.” Redd believes volunteers who see the trash understand the problem, but wishes more people “knew what I went through this year, to see all that trash, all that hard work to clean it up, and then it’s done again.” He wishes more would “just come out and pitch in, even for five minutes.” Boyd has worked with volunteers from all over, some out of town, some in college. She wishes more people understood how dirty the river is and that “there are signs everywhere saying ‘Don’t Litter,’ but people don’t care.” A Tragic Turn Aaron Leon Teeter, a 19-year-old corps member in the Youth Media Arts program, was gunned down near his Anacostia home on April 28. Rebecca Renard, Youth Media Arts director, calls him “an incredible guy for a lot of different reasons, [including] his seriousness about changing his life and his community… He was on this path to self-reclamation and stood out.” Teeter planned to pursue a degree in early childhood education and help children avoid problems before they start. He had witnessed his friend’s death at school and knew how early in life people could turn violent. In an essay completed days before his death, Teeter recalled the killing: “I thought school was supposed to be the safest place for a student. But that was not true, and the security was lacking that day. After that, I did not go to school for more than a month.” He then asked his readers and the world: “As we all know, drugs kill, and violence is bad…If you ever…feel like you want to do something violent, ask yourself this: What will be the consequences?” Teeter’s death underscores the Earth Conservation Corps’s importance in the community and its members’ challenges. Van Wye explains, “This is the most at-risk youth group in the capital. It’s our 10th member to be murdered in just 15 years. [These are] people defying the odds and making it work… Aaron had turned his life around.” Teeter exemplified one of the program’s primary goals – youth development. He had made it. And as the remaining corps members moved into their final month of community service, none could forget his all-too-short life. Graduation Day Over 100 people cheered on the 13 graduates. The crowd spilled out of the room onto the deck overlooking the Anacostia River. Several people, including Teeter’s mother, said the program saved their children and made them into adults. In a moving acknowledgement, Teeter’s sister thanked the Earth Conservation Corps for being “a shining light in a troubled society.” Now these 13 graduates will move on to college, internships and other jobs. They’ll take the lessons learned about the river and the world back into the community and build better futures for themselves, with the support of two families – the ones they had before June 2006 and the Earth Conservation Corps family they found beside the Anacostia River. Holly Jones is a freelance writer living in Washington, DC, and past contributor to The Hill Rag and East of the River. She can be reached at Holly_H_Jones@yahoo.com A Year On The River While river restoration efforts moved slowly, if at all, on other fronts… Approximately 70,000 tons of sediment, trash and toxics, carried by stormwater, continue to wash into the river each year. In the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s 2006 State of the Anacostia River Report, the river received a score of 19 out of 100 possible points, up from 17 in 2004. The Anacostia Waterfront Corporation’s recommended environmental standards will soon be voted on by the AWC board, but implementation may be delayed until the local government determines how the AWC, the only governmental or quasi-governmental entity in the Anacostia Watershed with the specific mission to restore the river, will be folded into other District agencies. Montgomery County’s stormwater permit expired in July 2006 and has not yet been renewed. However, the delay is largely a result of activists pressing for stricter standards to limit pollution in stormwater and the Anacostia River. The District and Maryland have listed the river as trash-impaired and are now working with the EPA to first develop trash reduction strategies and then trash TDML (Total Daily Maximum Load) standards. The Earth Conservation Corps members from the 2006-2007 program year… Led 1,779 volunteers in restoration activities Escorted 620 participants on Anacostia River patrols Participated in 86 service activities Gave 6,581 hours of service Filled 5,341 bags of trash from the Anacostia River and its tributaries Pulled 1,964 tires from alongside the river and its tributaries (118 tons – the estimated weight of the trash bags and tires combined) Restored 185 native plants along the river’s shores Planted 303 trees (the majority planted in partnership with Casey Trees Foundation) Planted 3,260 wetland plants (the majority planted in partnership with the Anacostia Watershed Society)