Marci Hayes couldn’t have summed up the meaning of Green Up Day better: “I’m motivated by the idea of taking care of the environment where you live. It’s good practice to respect the land. And it looks better after.”
Hayes is Green Up coordinator for Goshen and has been Greening Up around her town since she was a kid, she says in a story on today’s front page. Her six-year-old daughter, Abigail, who has been participating in the event since she could walk, her Mom says, has organized her first-grade class at the Neshobe School in Brandon to tackle a group clean-up project on the day. Role models, to be sure, for one of Vermont’s unique community activities that distinguishes the state and reinforces the individual’s sense of personal responsibility within their neighborhoods.
Established in 1970, the only sad thing about the annual rite is that it is needed all the more each year. Despite 43 years of annual Green Up Days, there is always more than enough trash on the sides of the roads and in community parks and public spaces that need picking up.
Special trash bags are available in most towns at a designated site, and while Green Up Day is officially Saturday, May 4, residents are encouraged to pick up the trash bags anytime this week and to Green Up throughout the week, culminating with special events this Saturday. (See a town-by-town listing of events and activities for Addison County on Page 27.)
Above all, get out and do your part. Vermont will look better if you do, and you’ll feel better, too.
Angelo S. Lynn