Kimberlie Kranich's Blog

Cleanin’ Up at Kickapoo

Henry and I got to Kickapoo at 8am for the clean-up. He took video and I shot still photos.  The atmosphere was laid back and friendly. There were lots of different kinds of people participating:  families with children, couples, lots of kids, Caucasians and African-Americans and multi-racial people, some from Vermilion County and others from Champaign County.  Michelle was there with her lovely family and kids and so was Brandon and Rickey.  I spoke to a couple of people who had come as part of their church. Many folks I spoke to found out about the clean-up through WILL’s promotion. That was cool.  I thought it would be so easy to paddle the paddle boats while Henry sat in the back with the video camera.  Was I wrong!  It was a work-out the entire time! Thank goodness, Don, a regular at the Landing, offered to steer and paddle the boat with me.  We got lots of good video and stills.  I love to anticipate the next action for my shot.  I got lots of photos of bags of garbage flying into the dumpsters, hands dropping garbage into bags, piles of garbage in canoes, canoeists, and families hiking the roads picking up garbage.  The day went fast and was fun!