Friends of the Shiawassee River's Annual River Cleanup Event 

July 19-26, 2025

The 2024 annual river cleanup event showcased a remarkable display of unity among communities throughout the watershed in support of clean water conservation. This year's event saw 174 registrations and over 225 participants from Byron to Chesaning. We are thrilled to share your story as you rally friends, coworkers, teams, and groups to come together and make a positive impact on the Shiawassee River. We eagerly anticipate welcoming everyone back in 2025! A special thank you to all attendees and our partners: Shiawassee County Health Department, Shiawassee County Road Commission, Shiawassee Drain Commission, Saginaw Mosquito Abatement Commission, the Department of Great Lakes and Energy, MiCorps, and Waste Management for their contributions to the success of this event. We also extend our gratitude to our Event Sponsor, GreenStone Farm Credit Services, and our Helping Hands Sponsors: Village of Corunna, St. Peter Parish, Mancino's, Chesaning Conservation Club, Chesaning Township, Saginaw County Parks and Recreation, J&S Tire and Village of Chesaning.

About the event:

This week long volunteer event spans more than 60 miles of the Shiawassee River. Coordinating with public and private partners, the Friends of the Shiawassee River brings volunteers from across the watershed together with one purpose, to clean up the Shiawassee River. Historically items such as tires, refuse, metal , and more are removed and deposited into one of two dumpsters provided by Waste Management for the event. There is one event dumpster located in Owosso, MI and another in Chesaning, MI. 

The event supports its volunteers with trash bags, gloves-donated by Gloves-For-Good, buckets, and trash pickers as well as provides a cleanup t-shirt to those registered with the event. Volunteers can select their own section of the river (behind their home or park) or we can assign one to them. This ensures the greatest impact across the watershed.  If you would like to join us in 2025, registration for the event will open in early June.  If you are unable to volunteer but would still like to contribute to our mission to Care, Share, and Enjoy the Shiawassee River click here to donate. 

We also partner with the Shiawassee Health Department to provide a Tire Collection, open to the public, in which you can drop off your tires to be recycled at a discounted rate. All tires pulled from the river will be recycled for free and we will give you information on how to do that after you have registered.