DONGDUCHEON, South Korea – Volunteers, including more than 100 troops from the U.S. Army’s Camp Casey, recently pulled enough trash from the banks of the Sicheon River to fill 70 large plastic bags.

With blue bags and tongs, residents of Dongducheon city and soldiers of the 210th Field Artillery Brigade teamed up on March 19 for the annual cleanup near the city’s Shincheon Bridge.

“Today’s cleanup is aimed at collecting litter from Sicheon’s streams to downtown Dongducheon to create a clean and pleasant environment for both visitors and residents,” Mayor Park Hyung-deok said ahead of the event.

The first cleanup was a 2004 project by the Dongducheon Do Dream Volunteer Center and Camp Casey soldiers. Lt. Col. James Hubbard, commander of 70th Battalion, said he was “honored and thankful” to take part in the annual event.

“Today will make a tangible difference by removing trash and other debris,” he said at the opening ceremony. “As a community, we’ll work together to restore the health a vitality of the river.”

White buckets, each filled with about 20 biodegradable balls of microorganisms, lined the banks. The balls help purify the river and eliminate odors.

Volunteers gathered along the riverside and tossed the balls into the river, then picked up as much litter as they could find and brought it for collection to the base of the bridge.

“This is an important event because we want to show that we’re good neighbors, good partners no matter what,” said Capt. Colin Root of the 210th. “We want to show that we’re members of the community and that it is important to band together at times to make the community better.”

green.christopher@stripes.com @ChrisJGreen8

Camp Casey