CINCINNATI — The summer is a popular time to spend afternoons floating down a river in a kayak or canoe.
But for two business owners- they realized their local river was littered with trash- and a lot of tires. This summer, they’re competing to collect the most tires and be named the Tire King.
What You Need To Know
- Mark Bersani and Bryan Wolf are competing to be the next Tire King
- The business owners both noticed a large amount of tires in the Little Miami River and began collecting them to clean up the river
- Now, the two are competing this summer to see who can collect the most tires
- Throughout the competition, Bersani is raising money for the Adventure Crew and Wolf is raising money for the Little Miami Conservancy
A day out on the Little Miami River is supposed to be relaxing. But for Mark Bersani- when he opened Loveland Paddlesports 20 years ago- he noticed he couldn’t enjoy the river out their back door as much as he would have liked.
“I started seeing tires, and I saw a couple of them and I started pulling them out and putting them on the side,” Bersani said. “By the time I got done, between here and the West Loveland Bridge, which is only about 200 yards, I was able to pull out 63 tires. So that’s when I realized there’s a problem, and somebody needs to do something about it.”
Bersani cleans up the Little Miami River from Lebanon to Loveland (Spectrum News 1/Brandon Coello)
But little did Bersani know that about 10 miles south on the Little Miami, Bryan Wolf started doing the same thing.
“It was just year after year I think because I make an effort to go on each of the cleanups throughout the year and there’s a ton of people to contribute and this is obviously bigger than Mark or I or anything like that,” Wolf, owner of Roads Rivers and Trails said.
Wolf proclaimed himself the Tire King- but Bersani was not ready to crown him.
“How this came about is that Bryan kind of called himself the Tire King and I said wait a minute, young man,” Bersani said. “I’ve been doing these cleanups since you were in grade school and you gotta take this title if you want it, so that’s how we got here.”
Now the two are competing to see who can pull the most tires out of the river this summer, the winner will be proclaimed the official Tire King which has gotten the competitive juices flowing.
Bryan Wolf shows off some of the tires he’s collected from the river (Spectrum News 1/Brandon Coello)
“It’s hard to pass the torch,” Wolf said. “I commend all of Mark’s efforts. He’s doing a good job this year. And I still feel like he’s probably fallen short, so today I brought a few tires from our collections just to contribute to his collection just to try to even it up a little bit. I want this to look as even as possible, because he’s trying.”
Bersani holds on to the Tire King medal (Spectrum News 1/Brandon Coello)
“This is the medal,” Bersani said of the tire hanging from his neck. “This is what Bryan is trying to take, he’s trying to take what is mine. So, I wish him luck, but it’s not going to be easy.”
And while the two focus on different sections of the river- Bersani from Lebanon to Loveland, and Wolf south of Loveland nearly to the mouth of the Ohio-they say it’s about more than a little friendly competition.
“You know the end result is we take out a lot of trash,” Bersani said. “So when you see that trash here on the bank that’s not in the river any longer, you realize we did a good thing today and we made a difference.”
And today, while a tire wasn’t found, a lot of trash was. But they both say this doesn’t even come close to their usual hauls.
Wolf collects plastic from the river (Spectrum News 1/Brandon Coello)
“Surprisingly, not a lot, just a lot of little plastic,” Wolf said of his own haul. “We’ll see if Mark comes back with more though. But when you don’t find a lot that’s also validating.”
“Yeah, we weren’t out there too long, but you got some old pottery and some old glassware and then, of course, some bottles and cans,” Bersani said.
While this is just a small sample size- the two say getting the word out and having people pick up trash along the way is what will make the biggest difference.
“People that are paddling on their own or in a group can take an onion bag out on their trip and they can collect all their trash or if they see something on the river, they can grab it clean it up, pick it up.”
They say this is what will create a clean river for future generations.
“Let’s get it clean first,” Bersani said. “Then let’s keep it clean.”
When asked if this competition will be a yearly event, both Mark and Bryan agreed it should be. And to add to the good the pair is doing- they’re also raising donations throughout the competition to better serve the outdoor community. Mark is raising money for the Adventure Crew and Bryan for the Little Miami Conservancy.
