The Clean Sweep 2026 - Shift 1 Summary
"Dog Days at Alligator Cove"
Shift 1 of the Big Muddy Clean Sweep - Wednesday, 8/12 - Saturday, 8/15/2026
By Alyssa Thomas, Stewardship Coordinator
Highlights:
- 8/12: Crew arrived to Alligator Cove, scouted for our cleanup with Water One and the community cleanup out of LaBenite
- 8/13: Crew set up at LaBenite for cleanup with Water One
- 8/14: Crew scouted river for Cooley Lake Cleanup
- 8/15: Cleanup with 34 volunteers out of LaBenite and 10 crew
The Big Muddy Clean Sweep crew arrived at Alligator Cove, a riverside property owned by former MRR board member Bill Fessler, accompanied by his 4-legged friend, Ginger. This is where we call home for Shift 1 and 2 (8 days). We are so fortunate for the shade and amenities that we were able to take advantage of, especially with the extremely hot days that we endured. The river views from Alligator Cove is unmatched!
Our first Clean Sweep camp at Alligator Cove. Photo by Alyssa Thomas.
What is the Big Muddy Clean Sweep?
The Big Muddy Clean Sweep is a 7 week long effort that moves downstream town by town, combining staff-led cleanups with community cleanup days. Each stop brings people onto the river to care for their local stretch and see stewardship in action firsthand. This is our way to celebrate 25 years of connecting people to the Missouri River.
This may sound familiar to you.. and it is! This project will mirror and compliment our efforts from 2021. We’re returning to the Kansas City-to-Columbia stretch because it's where our impact will be greatest. Downstream of Kansas City is where trash concentrates most heavily and predictably, making it more efficient for volunteers to remove large amounts of trash in a short timeframe.
We also have some unfinished business on this reach, with mapped high-density sites still to clean. And with the timing of this project in late summer, focusing on the many rack piles and sandbars along this stretch makes more sense than battling thick vegetation.
This is the stretch where we can remove the most trash, engage the most volunteers, and tell the strongest story capped with a fitting homecoming celebration at Cooper’s Landing on October 10th.
High hopes, high temps, and hard work with WaterOne
We wasted no time on day 1. After our drive from Columbia, we had a quick lunch and went out to scout the river for our upcoming cleanups with WaterOne the next day and the community cleanup on Saturday. It was a warm day, but gifted with a light rain. We unfortunately found plenty of trash. Check out a 360 time lapse of our scout.
Thursday morning (8/13), we splashed boats and set up for our cleanup with volunteers from WaterOne. The days were getting real hot with a high of 90 degrees by 10:00AM. For the safety of our crew and volunteers, we wrapped up a bit earlier. Despite a shorter work day, we still collected loads of trash. The tally brought 43 bags of trash from 3 sites. Thank you WaterOne! You can see our results from this cleanup here.
That afternoon, we went back out to haul the trash back to the ramp. We took a plunge in the river to cool off on a nice sandbar and found 12 more bags of trash from the site. We set up a MealTrain for people who wanted to help out through feeding our crew, and our friend Nova Clarke had brought us a couple of wonderful meals for the next two days. We were so incredibly thankful for a home-cooked meal after a long day on the river.
So.. many.. airplane bottles!
Airplane bottles, shooters, mini bottles, pocket jujus.. They take many names. We decided to collect these bottles. Just on the first day, we collected 295 airplane bottles. Little did we know, there would be plenty more to find in the days to come. We hope that these easily dispensable tiny bottles will become a big vessel for change.
On Friday (8/14), our crew set out to scout the next stretch of river around the Cooley Lake Conservation area boat ramp for our cleanup with Evergy in Shift 2, and we found plenty of trash. In the midst of our scout, we were greeted by a group of pelicans. In the evening, our crew tackled removing an old boat across Alligator Cove and collected a couple bags of trash.
Saturday (8/15) was another cleanup day out of LaBenite Park and our last day of Shift 1. 34 volunteers joined us to remove loads of trash from the river. We ended the day hauling off the trash and finishing up 2 more trashy sites that we were unable to finish up with the volunteers. We managed to collect 59 bags of trash from the river from this day!
A closeup shot of the pile of airplane bottles. Photo by Lynn DeCapo.
The Clean Sweep started strong, and we are rolling right into Shift 2 to tackle the next reach around Cooley Lake Conservation area and Missouri City. Stay tuned!
Stretch Results:
- Miles: 18
- Volunteers:
- Shift crew: 11
- 8/13 WaterOne volunteers: 18
- 8/15 community volunteers: 34
- Trash:
- Bags: 114
- Tires: 3
- Mini bottles: 774
Other finds: 6 mineral tubs, 2 55-gallon barrel, 3 styrofoam chunks, 2 coolers, lots of bottles, lots of straws, plastic crate, nerf bullets, Styrofoam couch, swimming pool, wooden table