Local candidates get their hands dirty cleaning Bear Creek as campaigns heat up

Cindy Kelly and Sarah Boyle pause from trash collecting for a selfie. 


Some candidates, like Sair Lara, brought their families to participate.


A full sized raft buried in the bushes was just one of the pieces of detritus found during the cleanup.


Merced Mayor Matt Serratto, left, mingles with other candidates and constituents during the cleanup event along Bear Creek.

The Bear Creek Yacht Club is flexible in determining what constitutes a yacht.



Candidates on the Creek gave local candidates the opportunity to get their hands dirty in service to their community.


Strength in numbers if fundamental when tackling a cleanup of this scale.

Cleanup efforts extended beyond Bear Creek to the park areas.


Merced City Council member Sarah Boyle arrived in style with her very own Times hat.

State Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria, at right, attended the event to show her support for the Bear Creek Yacht Club’s work.

Local political candidates were seen wearing safety vests last Saturday as they gathered in solidarity for a community cleanup event appropriately called “Candidates on the Creek.”

The event was held by the Bear Creek Yacht Club, the misleadingly named nonprofit that organizes regular cleanups along the City of Merced’s largest waterway. The yachts are, in fact, kayaks, which some participants use to access any garbage that has accumulated alongside the water.

“We are basically an organization that is looking to revitalize and restore Bear Creek within the city limits of Merced and then other waterways throughout the county,” said Jeremiah Greggains, the club’s vice president. “We do that through public events. We hold a cleanup every other month, in the even months, on the second Saturday for two hours, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. We call it the Crew 2-2-2: second Saturday of the second month for two hours.”

The club was incorporated in 2021, and since then has pulled nearly 100 tons of trash out of the creek. Over 2300 pounds of trash was collected at Saturday’s event alone, consisting of everything from the usual suspects like cigarette butts, to car tires and deflated river rafts.

“The Candidates on the Creek was really to get our current leaders and our future leaders down to the creek to see what is actually happening with the water quality, the unhoused issues,

just the trash and contamination through our waterways,” said Greggains. “A lot of people don’t realize that the water that runs through Bear Creek during the summer is actually irrigation water and this water is going directly to our farms. So if it’s going directly to our farms, it’s going directly into our food supply.”

The club held its first Candidates at the Creek during the previous election cycle, and had two candidates turn up to participate, in addition to many community members. This year, the number of candidates surged to double digits. There were 63 people attending in total.

Bear Creek Yacht Club regulars and members of Merced Walks (a frequent collaborator) showed up to get to work. A host of local leaders (some seeking re-election) and officials showed up for the event, including State Assembly member Esmeralda Soria, Merced County Supervisor Josh Pedrozo, Merced Mayor Matt Serratto, Merced City Council member Sarah Boyle, Merced City School District Trustee Birdi Olivarez-Kidwell, Merced County CEO Raul Mendez, Merced County Assistant CEO Mark Hendrickson, and Merced City Manager Scott McBride.

Several new candidates vying for a seat on the Merced City Council participated in the event, including Mike Harris, Darin DuPont, Cindy Kelly, Walter Smith, Sair Lara, Felipe Rojas-Flores, and Alex Carrillo.

Audrea Tuhn, who is running for a seat on the Merced City School District, showed up as well as Kalisa Rochester who is running for a seat on the Atwater City Council.

Orange safety vests, trash grabbers, and garbage bags were all provided, as well as donuts as a reward for all the participants’ hard work.

The Bear Creek Yacht Club continues to grow, and is exploring membership options and ways to improve the sustainability of their efforts, including switching from traditional trash bags to using recycled onion bags from local restaurants. Anyone who is interested in participating in the next cleanup is encouraged to visit the club’s website at: bearcreekyachtclub.org.