Have you ever walked, driven or ridden through your city or county and become disgusted by the amount of trash and litter? Have you ever thought, ‘Someone ought to do something about that?’

Officials of Keep Athens Limestone Beautiful, an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, realize that no single person can save the world from the tons of litter discarded by careless people. However, if everyone worked to keep just one area litter free, soon the community, country and entire planet would be safer, cleaner places to live.

“KALB is looking for businesses, groups and individuals to take responsibility for keeping a spot in Athens or Limestone County litter free,” said KALB Director Lynne Hart. “We have other areas that need adoption. If a group is interested they can pick the spot near their business, school or a pet area. If they don’t have an area, we’d be more than happy to help them find one.”



Guidelines



Guidelines for participating in “Adopt-A-Spot” are:

• Must commit to clean the selected location for one year

• Cleanups should be once per month, but no less than once every two months

• KALB will supply trash bags, gloves and vests

• The city of Athens or Limestone County will provide an Adopt-A-Spot sign.



“I will have to say that the groups get frustrated,” said Hart. “They clean up an area and two days later they’ll go by and see that someone has thrown out more litter. All of them say the same thing: ‘What is the mentality of someone who would litter?’ Obviously, they sign up to keep a spot clean, they are not the kind of person to litter and they do not understand someone who would.”

Hart said that conservative figures show Adopt-A-Spot participants expended 1,100 volunteer hours in the past year and turned in nearly 500 bags of trash.

“The City Council has given us an appropriation with which we buy vests, gloves and pick-up sticks,” she said. “Each group will have the supplies it needs and they can keep everything until they stop picking up that area.”

Hart said the City Council appropriation is also used for cash incentives to groups to help them earn money for projects.

“Groups that faithfully clean up, every three times, or every quarter, earn a cash prize,” said Hart. “Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Alabama have such are so limited on money. They have a summer camp but practically no funds for the program, so this is the way they earn money. The North Alabama chapter sponsors two spots and the school-based chapter has adopted two spots.”

Hart said the cash prizes are not handed out to individuals, but must go to non-profit groups for projects. She said the Retired City Employees group turns their prizes back to KALB.

Call the KALB office at 233-8728.