The Parkhurst family has picked up litter long their Adopt-a-Highway stretch for a decade. Even four-legged Tara Parkhurst helps.
Liz Kirchner
communitynews@ourvalley.org
Celebrating it’s 30th anniversary, Adopt-a-Highway program in Virginia has been collecting stories about volunteers who are collecting litter along Montgomery County roads, keeping Virginia beautiful.
For nearly a decade, Montgomery County’s Sue Parkhurst and her family have been volunteering their time to pick up trash along two miles of their neighborhood twice a month.
“Before we started picking up litter, the roads in out neighborhood were strewn with trash like most roads in the area,” Parkhurst said.
The Adopt-a-Highway program provides an opportunity for businesses, civic groups and families to clean up litter along Virginia’s roads and highways. People agree to adopt a two-mile stretch of highway in their communities picking up litter and recyclables at least twice a year for three years.
To support them, VDOT provides trash bags, vests, important safety information and highway signs that recognize the individual or group.
The idea of Keep Virginia Beautiful was launched 65 years ago “when one individual could not stand the litter on his road,” Mike Baum, executive director of Keep Virginia Beautiful said. “Virginia’s is the oldest affiliate of the nation’s Keep America Beautiful program.”
The program’s volunteer-supported mission at Keep Virginia Beautiful is to engage and unite Virginians to improve our natural and scenic environment through Litter Prevention, Recycling, Waste Reduction, Beautification, and Education.
For the Parkhursts, its neighborly effort.
“Our family has lived in the same Montgomery County neighborhood for 26 years. We are just a normal family trying to do the best that we can with what God has given us,” she said. “Neighbors have thanked us and our efforts seem to have made some people think twice about littering.”
It’s a constant struggle, but one that’s necessary.
“Unfortunately, people litter because they do not feel responsible for public areas like streets and parks,” Baum said. “People usually litter outside their own neighborhood where their trash becomes someone else’s problem and that someone else will pick up after them.”
KVB says litter is more than just a blight on our landscape, litter is costly to clean up, impacts our quality of life and economic development, and eventually ends up in our waterways.
“Each year, nearly 18,000 Adopt-a-Highway volunteers collect more than 25,000 bags of waste along Virginia’s highways,” Baum said. “It is estimated that these efforts save the commonwealth over $1.35 million that would have otherwise gone to clean up Virginia’s roads. “
KVB is most concerned about the safety of its volunteers. “The program does not assign highways 55 mph and over, and provides safety training materials, videos and equipment such as safety vests and cleanup crew signs to help make every outing as safe as possible.”
The effort is “free and easy!” Baum said. “After just two reported pick-ups your sign is erected on your adopted stretch of roadway.”
There are 5500 permits issued in total currently according to Baum, most are families and individuals, then businesses, churches, “In memory of” efforts, civic groups, farms tidying their rural roads, schools and scouts, HOAs and hunt clubs, fraternities, sororities and veterans volunteer. And all over Virginia, they keep at it.
“ We have had permit holders who have volunteered with the program since the Adopt-a-Highway program launched 30 years ago,” Baum said, one man in Woodbridge in Northern Virginia every Monday and Friday, and another man with The Port Royal Ruritan working alongside Route 17 in Caroline County twice a year.”
The Parkhurst family is not slowing down. Sue Parkhurst says they’ll keep at it “As long as we are needed and our health allows it.”
“In an ideal world, we wouldn’t be needed, but let’s be realistic, things change slowly. We believe that everyone can and should make a difference. Nothing is too small.”