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04/11/2019 12:01 AMOn Saturday, April 27 we will observe Green Up, Clean Up Day in Madison. In the past year, I’ve had unprecedented interest from young people who have contacted me to tell me that they would like to do something to help clean up our town. They’re concerned about the litter and the mindset of people who continue to litter.
Girl Scout Troop 60380 emailed me recently to say: “we are working on our bronze award in Girl Scouts. We would like to increase the town’s awareness of the dangers of littering as well as increasing participation in Green Up, Clean Up Day this year and years to come. The theme of our campaign is ‘Make Madison Magnificent.’” The most exciting part is that they plan to continue their efforts beyond that day.
I met members of the troop in my office last week and each girl made a point or asked a pertinent question. We’re still working on the plan for their continued involvement, but we agreed that they would use Green Up, Clean Up Day as a beginning point of their efforts to change the culture of litter in Madison. They want to create a long-term strategy to educate and inform people to prevent litter.
Following Green Up, Clean Up Day they’ll take pictures of the cleaned areas and then begin a campaign to educate people about not littering. Over the next six weeks, they’ll use posters and signs to raise consciousness about littering. One idea was to put signs in stores (whose cups/trash we regularly see around town) reminding people to use nearby trash containers. At the end of the six weeks, they’ll compare before and after pictures to see if they had an impact.
It’s an ambitious and intelligent effort and I hope we all rally behind them to make it successful.
As far as Green Up, Clean Up Day is concerned, we hope to get many others, including neighborhood groups, scout troops, sports leagues, and business owners to participate. In addition to the cleanup, we’ll be trying to address what we see as patterns developing in how people dispose of their garbage the wrong way: dog poop bags discarded on the road, nips and small liquor bottles piled up road-side and in neighborhoods, and beer cans thrown away outside of and near restaurants. Drive down to Brother Mike’s and look on both sides of the road. There are literally dozens of beer cans and bottles.
We will provide gloves and trash bags and someplace to dump the trash you collect. We will be staffing two locations: One crew will be outside the Visitor’s Center next to Memorial Town Hall. The Conservation Commission will staff the location at Robert’s parking lot on Route 80. Please join us starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 27 as we clean up our town. If you can’t make it that day, go out and pick up trash that you see around town and let’s “Make Madison Magnificent”!