After almost a decade of spearheading an effort to clean the Barren Fork River, McMinnville Breakfast Rotary Club is receiving a helping hand from the state to keep the river clean.Offering its assistance is the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. Tara Wohlgemuth with the department spoke to club members recently and offered to help the club spearhead a communitywide education effort.“Citizens can make a difference in the environment decisions affecting their community and state,” said Wohlgemuth.Breakfast Rotary committed itself nine years ago to a River Cleanup Project after listening to reports from avid river fishermen, boaters and swimmers that the Barren Fork River was full of trash, abandoned tires, rusty barrels and even car frames and other trash. After nine years of annual cleanup efforts, volunteers have removed over 50 tons of trash, hundreds of tires, and have grown the effort from less than 50 volunteers on a 3-mile portion of the river to more than 400 volunteers and 65 miles of river.The event has become a community effort with companies making donations and offering to recycle trash, the city of McMinnville picking up the trash that’s pulled from the river and taking it to collection sites, and members of local organizations, businesses, high school clubs, etc. volunteering to work the event.No one doubts the success.