MADISON TOWNSHIP — Austin Moore said he hopes the annual event he leads with fellow musician Adam Anderson plants seeds for his neighbors to keep Madison Township clean.
Last year’s inaugural cleanup day drew about 15 participants. Volunteers will meet again at Providence Church at 1122 Grace Street at 9 a.m. April 20 and clean up for about three hours.
“People can work as much or as little as they want, you’re not obligated to stay the whole time,” Anderson said.
“We’re going to focus on the Grace and Stewart area again this year and give everyone trash bags and some gloves and grabber sticks.”
Moore said last year’s group collected more than 40 bags of trash in the three hours they spent cleaning. Kirsch Properties lawn care will provide a trailer for the group and haul the trash away.
Moore and Anderson hosted last year’s cleanup day shortly after an April microburst caused structural damage to multiple homes and businesses, but the two started organizing in March.
“It didn’t take long for trash to gather again around that area,” Anderson said. “It was piled back up a few weeks later, but hopefully once you see your neighbors doing something, you’ll be inspired to keep it up.
“I didn’t see anyone else stepping up, so we organized this and got some thank-yous from people when we were out on the road.”
Interested participants can RSVP on the Facebook event page or show up at Providence Church the morning of. Moore said they can assign jobs to people who want to help but can’t physically pick up trash or walk for longer periods of time as well.
“We’ll take everyone’s name down, and have someone in the church parking lot as well,” he said. “I talked to one guy who said he could drive his truck closer to where people will be so they don’t have to carry bags back to the church, too.”
Participants are encouraged to wear high-visibility clothing, and some vests will be provided on April 20. The pair asks if children are helping that they be older than 11 for safety.
“We’re not going to tell people they have to stay in the areas we pick out, but since they can be heavily trafficked, obviously we want everyone to stay safe,” Moore said.
Volunteers are also welcome to suggest their own ideas for areas in need of cleaning.
“We were able to branch out a little bit last year, but it was a smaller group of us,” Anderson said. “The more people that show up, the more teams we can have tackling different areas. We don’t want anyone covering a stretch by themselves.
“Anyone who has ideas on getting more people to volunteer or areas around there that we should send people to, we would welcome that.”
Anderson said any businesses or people willing to donate supplies or food for volunteers can message him or Moore through the Facebook event page.
