A pond and the pavilion at Anson, B. Nixon Park in Kennett Square, on a quiet Sunday morning.
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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Hundreds of volunteers are expected to gather across the region for a shared purpose – protecting one of the area’s most important natural resources. On Saturday, March 28, the Red Clay Valley Clean Up will once again mobilize community members from both Delaware and Pennsylvania to help restore and protect the Red Clay Creek watershed.
Organized by the Brandywine Red Clay Alliance in partnership with organizations including Anson B. Nixon Park and the Delaware Nature Society, the annual event brings together residents, families, students, and civic groups for a large-scale environmental effort. Volunteers will work together to remove litter and debris from roadsides, parks, and waterways throughout the Red Clay Valley.
Participants will assemble at 8:00 a.m. at one of three gathering locations: Ashland Nature Center in Hockessin, Anson B. Nixon Park in Kennett Square, or the Kennett Area YMCA outdoor pool. From there, teams will head out to designated cleanup areas across the watershed, with volunteers working through the morning until approximately 12:00 p.m.
In total, volunteers will help clean approximately 103 miles of roads and streams that feed into the Red Clay Creek. Organizers estimate that more than 800 volunteers are needed to make the effort successful.
The Red Clay Creek watershed stretches across southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware and is an important environmental and recreational resource for the region. The creek ultimately flows into the Christina River and the Delaware River, making stewardship efforts upstream important for water quality throughout the broader watershed.
Community events like the Red Clay Valley Clean Up play a role in protecting these natural systems. In addition to removing trash and debris that can harm wildlife and pollute waterways, the event helps highlight the importance of caring for local ecosystems.
Organizers emphasize that the cleanup is designed to be accessible to everyone. No experience is necessary, and all supplies will be provided for volunteers. The event is open to individuals, families, and organized groups, including school clubs, scout troops, and community organizations.
The cleanup itself has deep roots in the region. According to Charles Shattuck, owner of Wild Birds Unlimited in Hockessin, the effort began more than three decades ago when local residents recognized growing environmental problems in the watershed.
“The Red Clay Clean Up was started by local residents more than 35 years ago who were concerned about issues affecting the watershed. Pollution, poor environmental protections, trash and debris from dumping had created an unsafe environment for people and wildlife. The easiest solution was to go out and pick up the trash,” Shattuck said.
He noted that the effort has grown into a multigenerational tradition for many local families and community groups.
“Since then, volunteers have come together each spring to make the waterways and roads from Kennett Square to Mt. Cuba free of trash. From children to adults everybody helps out. The clean up has gone on so long we now have generations giving us a hand.”
Shattuck added that the impact of the volunteers extends far beyond what people might expect.
“The amount of trash collected each year by volunteers can’t be easily discounted. They pick up tons of rubbish that not only is unsightly but hazardous to the environment. It can affect wildlife such as fish, birds, and mammals not only here but around the world. Trash in our local streams can easily be sent downstream and into the ocean far from the source, the Red Clay Valley.”
Only one registration is needed per group, and reservations are requested for groups of five or more. With hundreds of volunteers expected to participate, organizers hope to once again make a measurable difference across the watershed and inspire continued stewardship of the Red Clay Valley.
More information and registration details can be found at: https://brandywineredclay.org/annual-clean-up/
Jamie Kleman is a children’s author, playwright, TEDx speaker, and the Executive Producer of It’s Not Mean to be Green, an award-winning book and musical that toured for two years and launched a national Make a Monster Difference movement. She is the creator of the It’s Not Mean to be Green Camp and Licensing Program, a turnkey theatre and sustainability curriculum adopted by schools, libraries, museums, homeschool networks, and youth organizations.
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Some upgrades are coming to Anson B. Nixon Park in Kennett Square and Kennett Township. KAPA, the Kennett Area Park Authority, is in the midst of a $7.2 million capital campaign to revamp the old waterworks complex. However, it will take a few years before things get rolling.
The area in question is on the lower level of the park, near the community garden.
According to Richard Lyon, past chairman of KAPA, said they’re looking to transform several of the old buildings, which were a part of the old waterworks, into classrooms, offices, and a workshop.
“What we’ve been trying make this a wonderful community asset and also make it a safe place for our staff to work and store our equipment. We’re really trying to professionalize this operation,” he said. “At the moment, we don’t have a visitors’ center, we don’t have bathrooms, we don’t have office space, we don’t have Wi-Fi or anything in the park.”
Lyon added that people had the foresight 30 years ago to set land aside for the park, and now KAPA is trying to figure out how to fund it and run it. He said the park only gets a third of its funds from the borough and the township. The park is not supported by tax dollars, he added, but KAPA wants to make it better.
Part of the project is to bring the old buildings — where the water came in and settled, another where the water was filtered, and a third where the water was pumped around the community. There was also a building that was once used as a boxing club run by former Kennett Square Police Chief Albert McCarthy. But the buildings are no longer needed for those purposes and haven’t been for years.
“The buildings had been used for many purposes, and what we’re trying to do now is bring them back to life,” Lyon said.
The idea is one of adaptive reuse, to transform one of the buildings into an indoor/outdoor classroom and community space.
“It’s a place where we can run horticultural classes,” he said. We want to create more of a teaching and outreach program. At the moment, there’s nothing in the schools around here where anyone is teaching horticulture, agriculture, or ecology.”
There will also be classes for adults as well as children.
He added that with more apartments going up in the area, some of the space could be used, but those apartment dwellers to have their own gardens. Lyon said there could be a cost associated with those private gardens, but he wasn’t sure what that cost might be.
There will also be some open outdoor areas for a variety of uses.
“We want a space that is unlike any other community space that could open up to a big plaza,” Lyon said. “While we have a primary function of education, we want them to be available for the public to use.”
“We want to teach about water ecology, where clean water comes from and where the dirty water goes,” Lyon said. “The park was all built around water, so we want to make water a part of the feature, but we also want to make it fun.
One of the other ideas is to have a splash pad where kids (or adults) can walk through an area that is flat but has fountains coming up, so they can get wet on a hot summer day.
The whole idea is about education and family play.
The fundraising is crucial for the project, especially since, as Lyon reiterated, only a third of the p[ark’s revenue comes from the township and the borough, and the park doesn’t exist on taxes.
KAPA has a small portion of the funds raised but needs much more. Of the $7.2 million, $2 million comes from various grants, state, federal, and private.
Sharon Cullen, the capital campaign assistant, said the project will likely be done in phases, so they can’t start work on some of the plans without the need to wait for all the money to come in. As it stands now, there might not be any movement on the project for another two years.
Those who are interested in donating to the project can go to https://www.ansonbnixonpark.org/donate, and those interested in the project can go here https://www.ansonbnixonpark.org/waterworks.
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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