Nick Ruzek organizes a neighborhood cleanup in his community every year.
Maybe you’ve never seen Nick Ruzek walking around with a garbage bag hanging out of his pocket, but it’s probably only a matter of time. He joyously describes the annual Fox-Wolf Watershed Cleanup by saying, “I got to walk around in nature and pick up garbage!”
Nick first moved to Oshkosh just before the pandemic struck. At the time he was hoping to learn more about his new city, it was closing down. That was only a minor obstacle for Nick.
“During Covid, I got to know the city by walking around with a garbage bag,” he said. Every evening, he held his own personal cleanup event, taking a walk while picking up any litter he saw on the way.
He started cleaning up the ground as a kid, growing up on a farm in Manitowoc. Every spring, after the snow melted, one of his jobs was to clean up the property. Along the road, there was always garbage that had been dumped by passing cars. It was disheartening for Nick and his family. “I don’t want to believe that litter is deliberate,” he said. “But it’s real and it happens.”
Nick knew all about the Adopt-a-Highway clean up events in the community, and he was glad to see trash getting cleaned up. But it’s different when the litter is on private property. “No one is coming around to clean it up, but lots of people are coming around to throw trash and tires into the ditch,” he said.
Volunteers remove trash during the Annual Fox-Wolf Watershed Cleanup
Nick didn’t know about the Fox-Wolf Watershed Cleanup or how well it matched his personal mission to clean up trash. Last year, when he saw an ad on Facebook, he knew he had to get involved. Right away, he knew he wanted to bring all his friends and co-workers along with him.
“I was hoping to get a big group together,” Nick said. When he could only find a couple other folks to join in, “it turned into a fun double date instead.”
That wasn’t the only last-minute change of plans for Nick’s first Watershed Cleanup. As the end of the cleanup arrived, Nick took his last two garbage bags and went to another site in town that he knew needed a little love. It only took two minutes for Nick and his wife to fill both bags. They also removed a garbage bag – already full of trash – from the nearby retaining pond.
Because he grew up on a farm, Nick is keenly aware that there are more challenges to our local waters than just litter. “I’m thankful for living in a place where the soil and water are relatively clean. There may be some issues, but we have people working on it. I know there are pollutants, but they aren’t visible. They don’t clog up the flow of the river.”
Reflecting on his years of cleaning up Oshkosh, Nick has a theory about which places stay clean. “Public parks have families and staff who want them to be clean,” he said. But people take less pride and ownership in industrial, semi-commercial retaining ponds.
Maybe that’s one of the benefits of having the Fox-Wolf Watershed Cleanup in so many communities across the region. “There’s always going to be a site near you, where you can feel ownership,” Nick said. “I may only see one site, but I know there are over a thousand volunteers along the watershed on the same day. It gives you a sense of hope that you’re not alone.”
Doing something together with all those volunteers builds the sense of community and ownership that helps keep our communities clean and safe. “It’s hard to believe there’s something else more worth your time,” said Nick.
Watershed Moments is a publication of Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, sharing the stories of how your donations have impacted lives in our community. Read our latest project updates, make a secure online donation, or become a member at www.fwwa.org
