Taking Things into Their Own Hands – Carson River Clean-up

Amanda Daigh and her family moved to Fallon a year ago from Alaska, via Fernley. She is raising her two children, a daughter who will be a freshman, and a son who is 10, on their small farm. They have animals and chores and know how to work.

Last weekend, unable to stand the mess of an abandon homeless camp left under the Carson River bridge near Gummow Drive, she took matters into her own hands and dragged her children, along with her nine-year-old nephew out with a 4’ X 6’ trailer to clean it up. After posting their results of a day’s work on social media, several community members joined them Sunday for about an hour to finish the job.

It took the group a total of three hours, and four dump runs to remove 1,500 pounds of trash. The total bill at the transfer station was $30.

Daigh said a couple days before the group did their good deed, there was a bunch of complaining on social media about how bad the land under the bridge looked, but there was no one proposing any solutions. “Everyone was venting and raging, but nobody had a plan for it, there was a whole lot of a problem, but no solution.”

Her daughter is getting ready to start high school and she will need to earn volunteer hours and experience for her college applications. “What better way to contribute and get valuable volunteer experience,” said Daigh. “Yeah, she was not very impressed at first, but when she saw the progress and then came back, she was really excited.” Her best friend came to help the next day.

One observation Daigh made is the issue of homeless is here, and there really is nothing we can do to get rid of the epidemic, but “what can we do to make it less of an eyesore.” Because the city is only so big, she says when these situations are outside the city limits it becomes a county problem. “But the county is so big at what point are they going to help us at what point will the city say it’s still our town. It’s one of the first things you see when you drive by that giant airplane we’re known for.”

She is excited to see what the group of volunteers can make happen again and hopes to start a monthly meet up and get other places cleaned too. “I’m glad that it got done,” said Daigh, “it looks a lot better.”