Youth take on highway litter

Youth take on highway litter

Several stretches of Arizona highways remain litter-free thanks to Folksville USA — a virtual anti-litter town organized by Gary Chamberlain, a member of American Legion Post 135 in Cornville, Ariz.

In 2009, Chamberlain and a friend cycled a 20-mile scenic highway route connecting Cottonwood, Ariz., to Sedona and became "disgusted" by the amount of trash along the highway’s median. He took action in restoring Yavapai County’s surrounding highways back to what he described as "America the beautiful" by organizing Folksville USA.

Folksville USA’s first highway cleanup involved 300 people, many of them veterans, who filled 404 33-gallon bags with litter from a 30-mile highway stretch. While the virtual town continues to keep highways litter-free in Yavapai County, Chamberlain also developed a program called BagReadyJobs that empowers youth groups to develop personal and civic responsibilities, fundraise, and keep America beautiful.

Youth groups that participate in BagReadyJobs adopt a section of a highway to clean up by contacting their local Adopt-a-Highway program. Once a section has been assigned, they fundraise for their respective program by negotiating a fee with local businesses or Legion posts for every 33-gallon bag filled with highway litter; the fee is $7 to $10 per trash bag. The youth groups are paid after they provide the donors with a copy of Adopt-a-Highway’s confirmation letter stating that all service requirements were met, including the quantity of trash bags filled. The bags are left alongside the highway for four days to create public awareness and education. Youth groups have financially benefitted from the BagReadyJobs program over the past two years, raising more than $13,000 from Yavapai County businesses and Legion posts.

The BagReadyJobs program also asks participants to describe in a five-question essay what they learned from cleaning the highways and how they plan on making things better in the future. The questions are:

1. What did you learn?

2. What are the solutions to reversing the occurrence of highway litter and increasing recycling?

3. How does highway litter impact the economy of your community?

4. How does highway litter reflect on your residents?

5. What are you going to do to make a difference?

Saquioa Trujillo was among a group of Cottonwood Boys and Girls Club participants who earned $200 last year by filling 20 bags with litter from a two-mile section of highway. In her essay, she wrote, "One of the biggest things that I learned while picking up trash is that it can really cause a lot of damage to the environment and all of the animals that live there. I also learned that it is really hard work picking up trash after everyone. Even though it was a long four and a half hours, I’m so glad I have done it. I have driven by all that trash many times and never thought how much work it is to keep the roads looking nice and the environment clean. I don’t think other people think about it either because we picked up so much trash. I won’t throw my trash out the window anymore, and I am going to tell other people to be more careful too."

Many Yavapai County Legion post members are also doing their part in keeping highways clean. Members of Post 25 in Cottonwood recently filled 23 33-gallon bags with trash. "BagReadyJobs helps clean our highways, empowers our youth and helps veterans take pride in a job well done," said Sherie Mercier, Arizona’s District 8 commander.

Chamberlain hopes that other cities and towns will work with their local Adopt-a-Highway group and replicate the BagReadyJobs program. For information on how this program could work for your town, email Chamberlain: folksvilleusa@gmail.com