Yuengling employees, volunteers clean up around Port Carbon waterways

Apr. 17—PORT CARBON — On a chilly, rainy Friday morning, Steve Markley and his co-workers from D.G. Yuengling and Son Inc. brewery, Stephanie Hemmann and Jen Holtzman, walked along a wooded area in boots and rain gear, picking up debris along the way.

Then they spotted a partially buried rusted shopping cart and, using shovels, attempted to dig it out.

They were among 35 volunteers, including 20 brewery employees, gathered at the borough's public works and garage building on Commerce Street to clean up trash along Mill Creek and the Schuylkill River. The cleanup, a partnership between the brewery and Schuylkill Headwaters Association, took them from Mill Creek, behind Yuengling's Mill Creek brewery, to the Schuylkill Transportation System building at Industrial Park and ending at the Schuylkill River along Route 209.

Throughout the morning and early afternoon, they walked along the banks with black trash bags, clearing it not only of pieces of trash, but of tires, tarps and mattress springs. The borough's public works employees were on hand with trucks to assist the cleanup.

Markley, Yuengling's director of field marketing, said he came out to the cleanup because he wanted to help out and keep the environment clean.

"It feels fantastic," he said. "It's great to chip in, work as a team and help where we can."

He and his co-workers dug around the cart for 15 minutes before moving on. Two of the Yuengling sisters, Debbie Yuengling, employee engagement and culture manager, and Sheryl Yuengling, order services manager, joined the employees in the cleanup.

Debbie, who organized the employees volunteering that day, said it was "fantastic" to see her co-workers pitching in to clean up around the river despite the rain.

"It shows we are committed to the community," she said. "Schuylkill County has been our home for over 190 years and it means a lot to give back."

Also pitching in was state Rep. Tim Twardzik, R-123, Butler Township, who hauled out part of a barbecue grill along Mill Creek.

"It's to have a barbecue lunch," he joked as he put onto the back of a pickup truck.

Twardzik said trash "brings down a community," adding that it was "great and wonderful" to see the large crowd of volunteers giving back to the community.

John Bondura, the association's fish committee chairman, remarked that "you never know what you'll bring out," as he put a long piece of debris into the back of a pickup truck. He said some of it comes down from floods and high waters.

He said it was "awesome" to see the volunteers cleaning up the waterways, adding they were "getting better" over time.

Before the cleanup, Yuengling handed out yellow T-shirts with the brewery's Golden Pilsner beer logo printed on them. They were given instructions for the day by Terri Gibbons, the association's program manager, who encouraged them to "have fun and don't hurt yourself."

Port Carbon Council President Scott Krater thanked the volunteers for their work on behalf of the borough.

Yuengling and Gibbons said the cleanup was supposed to happen last year but was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is the first partnership between the brewery and the association.

Gibbons said the goal of the cleanup was to "promote the integrity of the Schuylkill watershed and its tributaries," of which Mill Creek is one of them, and for the waterways to be ecologically sound. It also helps kick off the celebration of Earth Day on April 22. Holtzman said with the holiday coming up and the brewery's involvement with the American Eagle Foundation, it "made sense" to clean up the environment around the Mill Creek brewery.

"I got a little dirty, but it feels great," she said of volunteering at the cleanup.

Contact the writer: clee@republicanherald.com; 570-628-6028; @Cleespot on Twitter