Non-Sibi Day river clean-up in Wassaic

WASSAIC — On Saturday, Oct. 3, 17 young people and 13 adults came to the hamlet of Wassaic from Millbrook to clean up the banks of the Wassaic Creek. They gathered more than 35 bags of trash and debris. The project was organized by alumni of Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., with assistance from the Housatonic Valley Association (HVA) in Wassaic.

The day was part of a worldwide effort, called Non-Sibi Day, created by alumni of Phillips Academy (better known as “Andoverâ€�), that took place in 26 states and 16 countries, including Iraq, Jordan and Australia.  Projects around the world involved feeding the homeless, community building projects and volunteering in orphanages.

The mission of the Andover-inspired project is to serve others, “non-sibi� or “not for the self,� and is designed to combine both good will and knowledge to encourage former students to be of service in the world.

Roger Kass and his family, who live in Millbrook on the weekends, joined with his friend and fellow Andover-alumnus Nick Bienstock and five other families to participate. In spite of it being a rainy day, the families gathered in raincoats at the offices of the Housatonic Valley Association, where they learned about the Tenmile River watershed.

The group then trooped down to the Wassaic park and playground, equipped with bags and gloves provided by the HVA.  The children quickly went to work scouring the banks and were delighted to find not only garbage, but “treasuresâ€� from yesteryear’s iron ore industry in the region: brightly colored pieces of slag scattered throughout the river bed that is sometimes under water during the spring floods.

Exhibiting the gusto of a group of children on an Easter egg hunt, they collected pieces of turquoise, green and purple glass-like rocks to take home as they also cleaned up metal, glass, plastic and other debris, carefully putting it in their garbage bags.

Dave Reagon, chairman of the Amenia Conservation Advisory Council (CAC), demonstrated macro-invertebrate sampling to instruct the young people about how the health of the river can be assessed by examining the insect larvae that live under the rocks in the stream.  He and the children were pleased by the abundance of species present, which indicates that the river is healthy.

Kass said he was delighted to discover that the HVA had an office in Wassaic after he sought out watershed groups on the American Rivers Web site’s “Organize a Cleanup� page.

The group made a clear impact on the area and made a difference locally, as children from the Wassaic hamlet followed them on bicycles, intrigued to see what the other children were doing.

“Next year we are going to try to involve the local children. We would like to come back and do this project every year,� Kass said.