If the sight of roadside litter grinds your gears, you’re just the person needed for the upcoming Trash Attack/Waterway Cleanup in Limestone County.

Each year, Keep Athens-Limestone Beautiful asks volunteers to turn out for the event — scheduled this year for 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, March 14 — and clean up heavily littered roadsides, waterways and public lands in Athens and Limestone County.

“It’s horrifically sad, the amount of trash out there,” said Lynne Hart, executive coordinator of KALB.

Registration for the event is helpful but not required, she said.

“If you wake up on Saturday and decide to help, just come to one of the check-in locations,” Hart said. “KALB will give you the supplies you will need — trash bags, litter grabber, safety vests and gloves, if you need them.”

Groups or individuals may choose a location to clean up, or KALB can provide a location that needs cleaning, she said.

“We have a lot of people just decide to come that day,” Hart said. “The more, the merrier. We have enough litter for everybody.”

Volunteers are asked to check in at 8 a.m. at one of three locations throughout Limestone County, including:

• Big Spring Memorial Park in Athens (the duck pond);

• Elk River boat launch off Hatchery Road in western Limestone County; and

• Downtown Ardmore.

Other check-in locations may be announced if enough volunteers register ahead of time.

Instructions will be given before volunteers are sent into an area to clean.

“If you can’t come on March 14, we will support any cleanup, anywhere, anytime in Limestone County,” Hart said. “If you go to work and see a roadway that needs cleaning, you can come (to the KALB office) and get supplies, pick up trash and bring back the supplies. Then, we will have the bags picked up.”

To register for the cleanup, visit kalbcares.com or call KALB at 256-233-8000.

Indorama Challenge

If beautification itself is not reason enough to get you out of bed on Saturday morning, consider the chance to win cash. The Trash Attack/Waterway Cleanup kicks off the annual Indorama Cash for Trash Challenge, in which a volunteer registers their name or their group’s name and collects trash along different half-mile stretches in Limestone County. The challenge ends Friday, April 24.

The drawing will be April 25 at the Earth Day & Outdoor EXPO at Athens State University. Trash Attack/Waterway Cleanup participants may be entered in the Indorama Cash For Trash Challenge, depending on the location and scope of cleanups, Hart said.

“For each half-mile cleaned, the individual or group gets their name entered in a drawing for cash prizes of $1,000, $500, $200 and $100,” she said. “There may be lesser prizes as well.”

Indorama Ventures of Athens, formerly Custom Polymers, sponsors the contest and has certain criteria that volunteers must follow to make sure legitimate trash gets picked up.

“So it’s important to call ahead the day before you clean,” Hart said.

Members of the Limestone County Commission will pick up filled trash bags and certify the half-mile is cleaned.

“Also, if you don’t call ahead, the bags may not get picked up right away and then they may get ripped open by animals or struck by cars,” she said.

The harder you work, the better your chance to win money.

“If you clean a mile in a day, your names goes in the drawing twice,” Hart said. “If you are part of a group of cleaners, you have to come up with a name for the group. Then, that name will be entered whenever the group cleans a half-mile.”

Adopt-A-Spot volunteers do not qualify for the drawing because they clean the same spot over and over again, she said.

For more information or to register yourself or your group for the Indorama Challenge, send email to KALBCares@gmail.com or call 256-233-8000.