The annual Help the Hooch River and Creek Clean-Up will be this weekend around Columbus.

Gloria Weston-Smart, the director of Keep Columbus Beautiful Commission, said the community cleanup is part of a state-wide effort to keep Georgia’s bodies of water clean.

“Everything that’s found along a major roadway can make its way to our watershed --cigarette butts, papers, bottles,” she said.

The cleanup effort begins Friday at local schools, where students will participate in campus clean-ups.

Volunteers will clean up local parks on Saturday, beginning at 8 a.m. Weston-Smart said there will also be divers in the Chattahoochee searching for debris.

“You’d be surprised as to what is found there,” she said.

And after you’ve finished cleaning up, head to Golden Park for the Watershed Festival. The family event will include games, a rock-climbing wall, inflatables and free refreshments for volunteers, as well as educational booths from Oxbow Meadows, Strong 4 Life and Georgia Power.

Weston-Smart said the annual clean-up and Watershed festival is designed to promote environmental awareness and keeping the river clean year round.

“Once a year is really not enough,” she said.

Sara Pauff, 706-320-4469