Last Saturday, September 26^th, sixty-eight volunteers joined us at the Crater of Diamonds State Park on a beautiful Fall afternoon for the Great Crater Cleanup. The Cleanup is an event within the Great Arkansas Cleanup, a program of the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission. After enjoying hamburgers and hot dogs with all the fixings, they scoured the mine search field finding old pieces of plywood, shoes, socks, buried buckets full of trash, and lots of other litter.  Collectively, the volunteers picked up 125 lbs. of recyclables and 461 lbs. of trash/litter for a grand total of 586 lbs of litter.

  We awarded prizes for the 3 top litter finders.  Sixteen-year-old Dalton Soto from Lake Charles, LA, took first prize, bringing in 111.75 lbs. of litter.  The first prize won him a free night of camping at Daisy State Park, 2 single day mine search area admissions, and 2 single day water park admissions.  Carrie Pelton, a 70-year-old Benton AR woman brought in 85.75 lbs of trash to take second prize of 2 single day mine search area admissions and 2 single day water park admissions.  Our third place winner was from McCaskill, AR.  Art Apodaca retrieved 67.5 lbs. of refuse and received 2 single day mine search area admissions.  Thus, our three top trash gatherers together accounted for 265 lbs. of refuse.