Article by Gail Greenaway
Bill and Daleen Maxwell are natural-born leaders with deep-seeded roots in giving back to the community. As members of First Unitarian Church, Bill and Daleen were among the founding members of For Love of the Lake’s Adopt-A-Shoreline (AAS) program.
As lake lovers, they frequently ran and bicycled at the lake. As church members, they served on the community service committee. Having already met FTLOTL’s founder and attended fundraisers for the fledgling organization, they were quickly recruited to participate in the AAS program. Bill recalled that in the 1980s and early 1990s, no regular city-wide effort existed to remove litter from the park and shorelines. When they joined AAS, trash piled up at the lake. Trees were bent over and touched the ground. There was little planting or beautification programming in place and the park had no trash cans. He said Adopt-A-Shoreline was a “perfect project” for the church group. They promoted the spruce-up events in the church newsletter, and it was well-received by the community service project committee.
In the early years, eight people from the church showed up on Second Saturdays and were busy for a full hour, removing litter from their shoreline section. Bottlecaps were profuse and cluttered the parking lots. Bill motivated the children in their group by paying them a penny for every bottlecap they found. The kids in turn were happy when they each walked away with 50 cents in their pockets. After completing their clean-up, the group sometimes stayed in the park for a picnic and friendly game of volleyball or ventured over to Barbec’s Restaurant for their famous beer-biscuits and coffee.
Bill and Daleen have noticed a change in the behavior of park users over the years that has restored their faith in people. People use trash cans when they are available and do not throw their trash on the ground as often. The park department now has regular trash removal. The result they have noticed is about a 50% reduction in the amount of litter in their section now compared to 20 years ago. The Maxwells said the most common items found at their section are plastic bottles, tennis shoes, tennis balls thrown to dogs, plastic bags, and take-away food containers and cups. Interesting items they have found over the years include Styrofoam coolers, tires, lumber, a driver’s license, and once, a wedding invitation.
Bill, Daleen, and the First Unitarian Church community service committee have passionately fulfilled their mission to support the efforts of FTLOTL and the AAS program since 1996. At year’s end in 2022, they resigned the adopted shoreline section they had faithfully served for 26 years. The First Unitarian Church AAS group has been recognized for outstanding service to FTLOLT several times throughout the years. We bid them a heart-felt Lake-Lover Super-Hero farewell and thank them for their dedication to For the Love of the Lake and White Rock Lake Park.
