Keeping Radford’s stretch of the New River clean and beautiful led 58 volunteers to turn out for cleanup day recently.

Using canoes and kayaks donated by Tangent Outfitters, clean-up crews paddled along the river picking up debris in the shallow water and along the banks from Bisset Park to the boat launch near Animal Control.

In addition to filling more than 50 trash bags with food wrappers, plastic bags, and cans, items pulled from the river and its banks also included four tires, two 55-gallon drum lids, a shopping cart, a stove top, a mattress, and assorted sharp, rusty metal pipes.

Among the volunteers were members of Phi Sigma Pi, Students for a Positive Change, the Tourism Commission, Rotaract, Pathways for Radford, and Boy Scout Troop 46.