White County has more creek bank than it has volunteers. If you are looking for a reason to give up a Saturday morning, Jim Hauck has the shortest one we have heard.
One Rule, Every Decision
“My dad said to me many times, if there’s anything you do in life, make sure you leave the water a brighter place than you came in. And that’s what I live by.”
— Jim Hauck, JP Hauck Adventures
Hauck’s father was talking about water literally — the family’s life was on it — and Hauck applies it to everything else. The metaphor survives the transfer because the test is the same either way: is this place better for your having been in it.
If I Cannot Do That, I Do Not Do It
The second half of the rule is what makes it a rule.
“If I can’t do that, I don’t do it.”
— Jim Hauck
He connects it straight to obligation: “you give back to your community, you make your community whole, you help your community, you help your neighbors.” And to gratitude — “if you get a lot, you should give a lot.”
Hauck also says the plain part out loud, which is that the people who talk about this most are not always the ones doing it: he calls it “one of those crazy Christian values that the Christians seem to forget about.”
Why Waterways Need More Volunteers Than Parks
A park gets mowed. Somebody is responsible for it, and its litter is visible to everyone who walks past.
A creek bank has neither property. Access is awkward, the debris collects at the water line where nobody stands, and a lot of what accumulates arrived by water rather than by hand — which means clearing it is not a moral rebuke to anyone locally, just work that needs doing.
It also has a downstream argument the park does not. What sits on a bank in August is in the water in the next high flow.
Getting Started With Two Neighbours
Practical guidance rather than Hauck’s. Pick a stretch you can see the ends of. Get permission if the bank is private, and check access before the day rather than on it. Bring gloves, sturdy bags, and one pair of boots you do not mind writing off.
Take a photograph before and after from the same spot. It is the only record that will convince the fourth and fifth person to come next time.
Safety first on waterways: nobody works alone, nobody enters moving water, and sharps and containers with unknown contents get left for the county rather than bagged.
More on local projects at the green energy and community blog.