Every weekend, Bob Snavely and his dog Buster can be found walking and fishing on the banks of the White River.
"It's a part of our week," Snavely said as he handed Buster a beef jerky treat. "If [friends and family] want to see me on Saturday or Sunday, they gotta come to the river."
Snavely, who was born and raised in Muncie, said he taught himself how to fish, and, at age 7, made his first catch. For 6-month-old Buster, a mutt adopted from a rescue shelter, the White River was love at first sight.
"I brought him out here as a pup and introduced him to the water, where he could get out and play in it," Snavely said. "It's been what he looks forward to all week. It's pretty amazing."
Snavely and Buster usually have the river mostly to themselves; but on Saturday, they were joined by almost 400 people toting trash bags, gloves and large tweezers. Volunteers for Muncie Delaware Clean and Beautiful's White River Cleanup walked along the river's banks for 15 miles, picking up litter along the way.
"Whenever I fish, I try to keep my little area taken care of, but it's pretty amazing to see all these people up and down the river, taking their time like that," Snavely said. "It's kind of nice to see somebody cares."
Cleanup volunteers Joe Jackson and Cara Calanni, both Ball State University freshmen, worked together to pick up trash in the river. Jackson, Calanni and another student linked hands in a line to allow Jackson to lean over the water to reach trash.
"It's really fun," Jackson said. "I got to go out on a rock and grab a beer bottle out of the water with a big pair of tweezers, so it's been adventurous already."
Calanni, a dance and journalism double major, said she came to the cleanup because she wanted to do something nice for Muncie.
"You're gonna live here, so you might as well make it as much of a home as possible," she said. "If you help out the community [around Ball State], maybe they'll help out the school. It's like a give-give hopefully."
Freshman Connections coordinator Melinda Messineo said as part of Freshman Connections' community service and sustainability objectives, the program had about 120 students participate in the White River Cleanup, which was more than last year's student turnout.
"I think it's a great example of what's possible," Messineo said. "If we can create structures and opportunities for the Ball State students and the community to come together, they will show up and they will participate and they'll enjoy it and they really will feel a part of the community."
Ball State shuttles left Noyer Complex at about 7:45 a.m. Saturday for Westside Park, where MITS buses took volunteer groups to different sections of the White River.
River Committee coordinator Layne Cameron said this year was the group's second White River Cleanup effort. Although last year's cleanup had more volunteers (about 480) and picked up 15,000 pounds of trash, this year's 380 volunteers cleaned more than double the river area: 15 miles. They will know how much trash was picked up this year by Monday.
Cleanup volunteers said they found everything from big items, such as a rusted lawn chair, a La-Z-Boy chair and a shopping cart, to smaller items like glass bottles and plastic bags.
Ball State Assistant Professor Jarka Popovicova teaches courses in water quality and offered her students extra credit points to attend the cleanup.
It is important to keep the White River, Muncie's major drinking water source, clean, she said.
"Why wouldn't you keep any river clean?" Popovicova asked. "Because that's where you get your drinking water, that's where you would want to swim, that's where you get your fish."
Rick Conrad, Bureau of Water Quality director, said besides reading a list of percentages and chemicals, looking at how healthy a river's fish are is a good way to determine how clean the water is. Though the White River's fish aren't always safe to eat, he said their health has improved.
"When you look at the quality of the fish, it's very high," Conrad said. "It's probably one of the highest in the area. Especially compared to 30 years ago, it's an incredible increase."
Conrad said the state's fish readings for the White River have remained consistently good.
"[Muncie] should definitely be proud of the condition of the river," he said. "I'm not saying there aren't still issues out there that we're looking at, but we've done more than most communities."
Snavely said he has brought his father, brother and fiancee to the river to spend time with them. He said he eventually hopes to share the weekend tradition with his future children by teaching them to fish on the White River.
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