Which would you rather not find during a walk along the Cedar River, Buzz-Lightyear boxers or a loaded diaper?

Thanks to a clean-up crew of about 35 volunteers, river patrons will no longer have to stumble across either.

The Friends of the Cedar River Watershed (FCRW) held its annual cleanup of Renton’s only river Aug. 14 as a part of the National River Cleanup.

“It’s an important well-used, well-loved waterway,” said Rebecca Sayre, outreach coordinator for FCRW. “This is taking care of our home watershed.”

Volunteers found a variety of odd stuff, including a bike that had a tree growing up around it, she said.

The group split into five teams and scattered along the river’s lower basin, focusing in Renton.

For two hours families worked alongside young students interested in taking the experience back to school.

“Everyone seemed to come back in good spirits,” she said.

Organizers raffled off t-shirts and CDs. An applause test for worst trash determined who won the grand prize, a tent.

The winner? Buzz-Lightyear boxers.

The Cedar River cleanup hopes to address Puget Sound’s larger pollution issue by focusing on the rivers that feed into it.

“Plastic trash, in particular, that we leave along our waterways accumulates in our oceans at an alarming rate,” Sayre said.

The project included education, something fun and something useful – picking up trash.

“It’s the fact that people are getting engaged in the process of cleaning up the river,” she said.

The effort was also funded by Puget Soundkeeper Alliance and American Rivers.

“What’s cool with the collaboration is that it’s a national group, working with a regional group, working with a local group to get stuff done on the ground,” Sayre said.