Almost 70 student- athletes picked up trash for service project last week

Dozens of high school athletes fanned out across Freedom Park and the Greenway last week, picking up paper and plastic trash littered about the trails.

The cleanup effort was a service project for the 2026 John F. Hall Catawba County United Way Cross Country Invitational involving students from the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM), Draughn High School, Freedom High School, and Patton High School.

After about an hour of work, the cross-country teams had filled 30 construction-sized trash bags and the bed of a Morganton Parks and Recreation truck with garbage.

The goal was to cover as much ground as possible between Freedom Park and the Catawba Meadows Soccer Complex, said NCSSM cross-country coach Chris Collins, covering up to 3 miles including the park’s walking trail.

“I would say, for all the schools, the Greenway represents our most shared and sacred place,” Collins said. The other coaches voiced their agreement. “I mean, even the coaches. … This is usually where we go running.”

Catawba County United Way’s cross-country invitational is a large high school athletic event that draws hundreds of runners from across the state, according to the organization’s website.

Participating teams must complete community service projects as part of their entrance fee, Collins said.

“There are usually 30 or 40 teams that come, so you could imagine the scope of community service from Hickory and beyond,” Collins said.

At Freedom Park, kids from the four schools broke off into teams and were deep into the Greenway after just 10 minutes, finding trash ranging from soda bottles to a piece of a car’s bumper.

About 30 students from NCSSM, 26 from Freedom, seven from Draughn, and five from Patton participated in the cleanup, according to the coaches.

Senior NCSSM student Alex Hruby said, aside from a service project being required, “It’s just nice to be able to help a community area that we also benefit from. A lot of us (at NCSSM) aren’t from here, so it’s nice to be able to help out a community that’s done so much for us.”

Hruby said he is from Charlotte, and that when he came to Burke County, he was welcomed by the community with warmth and hospitality.

The project is also important to him because he and his team don’t like when the Greenway is covered in litter. Freedom senior Chloe Spencer said she doesn’t like it when trash is strewn about, either.

Spencer said she feels that, when she and the other runners clean up, “it teaches us to appreciate it (the Greenway) more.” She added that it is also a great way for her team to bond.

“Somebody has to clean it up, and I feel like unless somebody sees other people going out there and putting out effort to clean up, it’s just going to get messier and messier,” Hruby said. “(And) part of it is some kind of responsibility, because if I’m going to use the Greenway, it’s also part of my responsibility to make sure that it looks nice for the next person on their run.”

The Catawba County United Way Cross Country Invitational will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 14, at Southside Park in Newton. The park is at 1775 Southwest Blvd.