Happy Blog Action Day 2012!  “The Power of We” is this year’s theme and today the Eco Women celebrate a particular group who contribute to our nation’s health and beauty.  All across America an army of volunteers works hard keeping our roadsides clean.  Some people do this informally–grabbing a bag and picking up trash as they take their daily constitutional.  Some folks diligently keep the area along their property line trash-free.  Some go out annually or biannually and pick up the garbage in the ditches and curbs up and down the roads where they live simply because they want to preserve the beauty of where they live.  And many people join an organized effort to clear litter from our highways and byways.

One community group, organization or business at a time–volunteers head out to pick up the litter on our roadsides.

One mile at a time, down state highways, county highways, country roads and even city streets.

One bag at a time.

One piece of trash at a time–cigarette butts, soda cans, plastic shopping bags, dirty diapers, fast food wrappers, old tires, abandoned socks and used newspapers.

They are the Boy Scouts and war veterans.  PTA moms and union members.  Church youth groups, ladies auxiliaries, Elks, Lions and Optimists.  DECA, FFA and  NHS students.  Ducks Unlimited and town beautification committees.

The official Adopt-A-Highway organization was founded in 1989. In Illinois alone nearly 1,700 volunteer groups have adopted 3,400 miles of highway, collecting 32,000 bags of trash from state highways each year. Texas has over 4,500 groups who have officially adopted highways through the program and in Missouri 4,000 groups and 40,000 volunteers in the program make over 5,800 miles of roadway cleaner.

We at Eco Women salute the road warriors who keep America beautiful.  It’s a disgusting and labor-intensive job.  It saves taxpayers money on litter removal.  Their efforts keep waterways clear, soil clean and wildlife healthy.  Whether informal or formal, Adopt-A-Highway is “The Power of We” working to make a big difference.