LEAGUE CITY – Dozens of volunteers traded a slow Saturday morning for gloves and grabbers along Clear Creek, working together to remove trash from the water and surrounding shoreline in League City.

The large-scale cleanup effort brought crews onto boats and into nature trails, all focused on keeping local waterways safe and clean.

“Leading by example is my strongest goal — to obtain as many volunteers so that we can help the cities and the country relieve the burden of having to spend so many of our tax dollar monies in order to clean up after us,” said Francisco Tejero, one of the volunteers. He added that part of the mission is making volunteerism “trendy.”

Much of what volunteers collected was familiar.

“The most common is styrofoam and plastic buoyant bottles, stuff that floats in the water,” Tejero said.

But not everything pulled from the creek was small debris.

“We have found furniture that has floated out of people’s houses full of their belongings. We have found refrigerators, freezers,” said Micheal Stone, who has helped organize cleanup efforts at Clear Creek for 28 years.

For Stone, the highlight of the day was not what came out of the water — but who showed up to help.

“This right here is what’s the highlight. Seeing all these people, volunteers and kids from high school, from all different walks of life to come out here and help us today,” he said.

For some participants, it was their first time joining the cleanup.

“We just kind of walked down one of those little nature paths with an empty bag of trash and they gave us grabbers and gloves and everything,” one volunteer said. “So they had everything we needed.”

Another added, “It feels good to contribute to the community, especially because we both live right down the road.”

Others said keeping the water clean is personal — especially for those who use it year-round.

“Being at a boating club, we are using the waters around this area all the time,” said Wendy Chopin. “So having the water clean and safe for everyone out there is just really important to everyone in our community.”

By noon, dumpsters were filling up and Clear Creek was looking noticeably clearer.