Volunteers Didn’t Loiter Over Litter
About 100 people hit the highways Saturday with bright orange garbage bags to clean up litter for North Idaho Spring Clean-up Day.
Adopt-A-Highway volunteers swarmed the barrow pits to pick up garbage and delivered it to the North Idaho Fairgrounds, where volunteers from The Idaho Spokesman-Review sorted out recyclable trash and served hot dogs and refreshments.
The Hayden Lake Volunteer Firefighters Association brought in the largest load of garbage.
The 878 pounds of trash earned the association a $500 cash award to donate to its favorite charity. The firefighters chose to donate the money to the fight against muscular dystrophy.
About 25 teenagers with Susie’s Tap and Jazz brought in the second-largest load, with 806 pounds of garbage, said Bob Myklebust, the newspaper’s North Idaho office manager.
Jerry Magee, also of The Spokesman-Review, suggested that the company sponsor the clean-up day after discovering that Idaho was making budget cuts in the Adopt-A-Highway program.
The state transportation department had sponsored spring clean-up days in the past.
“Last year’s cleanup was on Mother’s Day,” Magee said. “That didn’t go over well.”
Magee organized the event and arranged for Waste Management of Idaho to loan a gigantic Dumpster for the day.
All in all, more than a ton of garbage was collected.
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