DEKALB COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVF) — Getting ready for an expedition is something the owners of Kayaking Adventures of Tennessee know all too well.
"Making sure we have everything ready," said Tara Hunt, a co-owner of the kayak tours company that operates at Center Hill Lake.
They still venture out even when it's this cold out.
"We still kayak in the winter. You’ve just got to follow the number one rule of not falling in the water," said Eddie Ramos Jr., the other owner of KAT.
Chris and our photographer Dan tour Center Hill Lake. Watch in the player above.
Only, where they're going, instead of boats, they'll need boots and gloves. They've picked Holmes Creek Recreation Area as their spot to clean up all the litter and garbage left behind by careless boaters and motorists.
"Once you start seeing trash you won’t stop seeing it," said Hunt.
The duo finds a little bit of everything in these clean-up ventures.
"Tires, bottles, flip flops," said Hunt. "Every kind of plastic you could imagine."
"This can has obviously been here a long time because they quit making those pull tabs years ago," said Ramos, as he showed NewsChannel 5 an old-fashioned soda can.
"Oh it’s a dishwasher," said Hunt, in amazement.
You can find Tara and Eddie doing this almost every day during the winter months.
"Usually at least three times a week, sometimes four — as much as we can. As much as I can drag him out," said Hunt.
"I do it for her some days when I don’t feel like getting out," said Ramos with a laugh.
In part, they do it in the winter because it's a good time of year to access parts of Center Hill Lake that are usually underwater.
"People who sink cans or put cans in the water, they go straight to the bottom, so you can’t get those in the summer," he said.
But also, because this all started when Eddie was cleaning up his own life.
"We had a meeting, I think it was March 2020 at Nissan, and they said we would be laid off," Ramos explained.
After that meeting, Ramos was jobless on top of being divorced. He decided to take what little money he had in savings to paddle out on his own and start his own business. "I started charging 25 dollars a piece for my tours," he said.
Not long after, he met a partner in business and life.
"At the end of the trip, he asked if he could call me. From then on, we were pretty much together," explained Hunt.
So, to a lake that has provided them with the life of their dreams, this is their way to give back.
NewsChannel 5 followed the couple for about an hour and a half of back-breaking labor. They decided to weigh all of the discarded items they were able to carry back up to the parking lot. All together — 447.5 pounds of litter that no longer lies below the surface of Center Hill Lake.
Just this month alone, Hunt estimates they've recovered nearly 3,000 pounds of trash.
"When you actually start weighing it, it says something," said Ramos.
"It’s good, that’s a good day," said Hunt. Then without skipping a beat, she said, "We’re going to get some more though."
After saying goodbye to this reporter and Photojournalist Dan Blommel, they got right back to work.
"To take care of the area that gives us so much joy, means everything to us," said Hunt.
"If we’re cleaning up hundreds of pounds of trash just us two, just think if everybody went out one day a week, picked up 10 pounds of trash. It would really impact Tennessee a lot," said Ramos.
Tara and Eddie plan to save money from their tip jar to eventually buy what they call a trash boat. They hope with a vessel and a motor, they can start picking up trash and debris from other parts of Center Hill Lake that can only be accessed by water.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
