Volunteers Clear Galesburg Streets of Litter

By Jonathan Kleyer

Bright-vested volunteers combed the streets of Galesburg, picking up litter in a cleanup project.

Craig Newton, of Galesburg, spearheaded the community-wide effort, which had volunteers gathering at the city hall around 8:30 a.m. on April 10th.

According to Newton, he came up with the idea for the cleanup project last year when the city held a “Bridge to Bridge” walk last Labor Day.

“In September, we had a bridge walk from the 35th Street bridge to the Battle Creek bridge on the other side of town,” Newton said. “We always assembled on the 35th Street bridge, and I got there an hour early.”

He explained that he noticed the amount of litter along the roads and went home to pick up 30 gallon trash bags. Returning to the bridge, he went an estimated 75 yards down one side of the road and 75 yards down the other.

“There was so much trash, it bothered me. It doesn’t have to be this way,” Newton added.

After speaking with Galesburg City Clerk Debbie Miner about the idea of a street cleanup, he approached the city council. According to October’s City Council minutes, it was agreed that it would be ideal to hold such an effort in the spring before the 50th anniversary celebration of Greater Galesburg Day on June 19th.

Since then, Newton has had his hands full organizing the cleanup effort, coordinating with the city, the county and the townships of Charleston and Comstock. For safety, Newton borrowed 60 high-visibility vests from the county.

“I even suggested to some of the people to come, if they have a hunting vest with bright orange, bring it along,” Newton commented.

Of course, he also had to spend time recruiting some volunteers to wear those vests.

“I’ve lined up students and the boy scouts, family members and all kinds of people,” Newton said. “I tried to get students from the high school, and I have a number of kids lined up. I bet if more kids get out and see how much trash is getting left along the roads, it will have an effect on whether they do it again themselves.”

Over 70 people showed up the morning of the cleanup, so the high visibility vests were distributed with a priority for volunteers less than 18 years old or group leaders.

Each group started out with small water bottles, 10 trash bags, latex gloves and blue flags. Newton instructed volunteers to mark the locations of hypodermic needles or other sharp objects like broken glass with the flags.

Volunteers chuckled as he told them not to worry about picking up roadkill.

“Use your common sense. We’ve got plenty of time, and it isn’t a race,” Newton told them.

Addressing the problem of litter along the streets does not, however, end with a single cleanup effort. To that end, Newton already has some ideas on where to go in the future.

“I don’t know why people think they have to throw trash all the time. There needs to be a campaign, somehow,” Newton said. “I’m not blaming McDonalds or Subway, but a lot of the trash I picked up was wrappers and things from both.”

One idea Newton has is that such franchises should hold their own campaigns to cut down on littering—but since litter will continue to be tossed along the roads, he is also planning more community-wide cleanup efforts.

“I’ll probably do this twice a year. If we do it again this year, it’ll probably be in late September, early October,” Newton said.

As for the volunteers, the satisfaction of cleaner streets in their community was not the only reward—Newton also arranged a hamburger and hot dog lunch for them after the cleanup in the pavilion behind the city hall.