The Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church in Crawfordsville, Indiana joined with the Friends of Sugar Creek organization to conduct a clean up of the Sugar Creek waterway. A team of 14 members from the church, ranging from age 8 to 82, along with 4 students from Wabash College, walked along shorelines and canoed through the creek to pick up trash over a two mile stretch. They filled multiple truckloads with debris, including tires and other large items. As a result of the successful event, the church has committed to continuing supporting clean ups of the creek in future years. If awarded a grant, the funds would be used to purchase canoes, kayaks and safety gear for future clean up and educational activities conducted

1. Stewards of the Earth
Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church Team
Supports Friends of Sugar Creek for a Creek
Clean Up Day

2. Like two streams flowing together…
WabashAvenue Presbyterian ChurchChurch
Wabash Avenue Presbyterian joined with
Friends of Sugar Creek, a 501c(3) organization
joined with Friends of Sugar Creek, a 26year-old 501c(3) organization

3. To remove truckloads of trash from Sugar Creek in
Montgomery County Indiana

4. The Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church Sugar Creek
Clean Up Team

5. The Wabash Avenue
Presbyterian Church
Team included members
from 8 … 80 and
Four Wabash College
students.

6. We walked the shoreline filling bags with trash as
we went.

7. Bags and bags of trash picked
up along the shore.
Always on the lookout
for more trash as we
went.

8. We recovered an old tarp…
We recovered an old tarp…

9. And packed it up for disposal

10. We found lots of bottles and cans. Some even full…

11. But we emptied those before disposing of
them.

12. We found five tires, including this truck tire
that had to be rolled half a mile to the take
out site.

13. Even a commode…

14. While some of us walked, five members of the team
paddled, pulled, and pushed canoes loaded with debris
they picked up from the creek bed.

15. After two miles on the creek, the canoes were
riding low in the water, weighted down with
trash.

16. This kayak tended by Friends of Sugar Creek on another part of
the stream carried all it could!

17. And at the end of the two-mile debris tour, the
canoes are removed and ….

18. The trash is loaded up, to be
transported to the final collection site.

19. With this and more removed during
the Fall 2013 Clean Up…

20. A more pristine Sugar Creek continues
to flow, inviting new visitors to enjoy
and use it.

21. Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church
Stewardship Committee
• Has committed to
continue its support for
the Friends of Sugar
Creek Clean Up in 2014
and 2015.
• And the WAPC Sugar
Creek Clean Up Team
commits to cleaning the
Rock River Ridge Landing
shoreline and creek bed
in those years.

22. If Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church
wins the Super Service Challenge…
• Friends of Sugar Creek will
purchase:
– Two canoes @ $495 each
– 2 kayaks @ $295 each
– Personal safety flotation devices
for each boat @$35 each.
– Paddles for each boat @$30 each
– For a total of $1970
• These will be used in future
stream clean ups, water
quality monitoring,
canoe/kayak safety
education by Friends of
Sugar Creek, WAPC for
fellowship activities, AND

23. For more family float trips like this one.
Submitted by Wabash Avenue Presbyterian
Church Sugar Creek Clean Up Team,
Crawfordsville, IN

24. Narrative of Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church Team
Application for Super Service Challenge Grant.
Stewards of the Earth:
Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church Team
Supports Friends of Sugar Creek with a Creek Clean Up Day
Like two streams flowing together to make a larger one, a team from Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church in Crawfordsville,
Indiana joined with the Friends of Sugar Creek, a 501c(3) organization, to help with a fall clean up that removed truckloads of trash
from this scenic waterway in west central Indiana.
This joint effort by the Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church (WAPC) and Friends of Sugar Creek (FSC), whose mission is “to
protect, restore, and promote appreciation for Sugar Creek and its watershed,” began when the Deacons of the church organized a
celebration of Earth Day in April 2013. The events of the day generated discussion within the congregation about how we could be
better stewards of the earth in our local community. In light of that discussion, the Stewardship Committee, which usually focuses
almost entirely on stewardship of financial resources in support of the church budget, proposed that WAPC participate in the FSCorganized fall clean up of Sugar Creek, a beautiful stream that flows diagonally from the northeast to the southwest through
Montgomery County, IN. This led to the formation of the WAPC Sugar Creek Clean Up Team that participated in the clean up on
Saturday, September 14, 2013.
The WAPC Sugar Creek Clean Up Team, consisting of 14 members of the congregation ranging from an 8-year-old to an 82year-old, and joined by four Wabash College students, picked up trash along a mile of shore line and removed debris from the creek
bed itself over a two-mile stretch of the creek from the Rock River Ridge Landing to Younts Mill. Thirteen members of the team
walked the shoreline and over a mile of the rail trail that crosses Sugar Creek at Rock River Ridge Landing filling bags with trash. One
member of the church team and the four Wabash students paddled, pushed, and pulled three rented or borrowed canoes two miles
down stream, picking up debris as they went. By the end of the day, the Wabash Avenue Church team had collected two pickup truck
loads of trash, including five automobile or truck tires and one commode.
Other groups organized by the Friends of Sugar Creek took responsibility for cleaning up other sections of the stream. In all, parts of
several campers washed into the creek by a spring flood, lots of beverage bottles and cans, pieces of awnings, and over 25 tires were
collected in the ten miles or more of the creek that were cleaned during the day.
Building on the success and the good fellowship of the day, the Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church stewardship committee
has committed the congregation’s team to participating in future Sugar Creek clean ups. The team will assume responsibility for
cleaning the stretch of the creek from the Rock River Ridge Landing to Younts Mill in 2014 and 2015.
If the Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church Sugar Creek Clean Up Team project wins in the Super Service Challenge we would
propose that the money be used by the Friends of Sugar Creek to purchase two canoes and two kayaks, paddles for each boat, and an
assortment of safety floatation devices to be used by the Friends organization in its future clean ups, family float trips, and water
quality monitoring activities. The cost of this equipment would total about $2000. The equipment would also be available to WAPC
for adult fellowship and youth activities designed to promote environmental stewardship and water safety.