After the Boxing Day floods in 2015 the Calder Valley has been looking a little worse for wear. However, it will take more than that to sink this area and the Alternative Christmas and Handmade Parade events in Hebden Royd this weekend really showed their resourceful, community spirit.
C I Adventures have been working together with local volunteers to clean the rivers and canals, using our canoes to get to those tricky places. We are running a mixture of evening and full day cleaning sessions.
We ran one such session last week with a group of volunteers from Lloyds Banking group. There were about 20 of us and over the course of the day we managed to thoroughly clean a 400m stretch of the river by Hebden Bridge Railway station. The weather was perfect for it, warm but not too hot, and the river was a buzzing production line of activity.
Some people were land based, and others up to their waists, dredging up rubbish from the bottom. We used the canoes to get to places that you couldn’t get to on foot, and to transport those extra-large bits of rubbish up and down the river.
Multiple scooters, bits of metal, a clock and even a lawn mower were removed. By the end of the day everyone was tired but feeling a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction at the very real difference they had made. A great success!
If you are interested in doing any volunteering, please contact Harriet on 07872525278 or harriet@ciadventures.com
