Civic-minded groups frustrated, motivated by litterbugs' habits

Being a grunt on the front lines in the war against litter isn't an easy job, nor does it have many fringe benefits.

It's an uphill battle that never ends, as areas along highways can be cleaned up one weekend only to be trashed again.

Some people, like jail inmates, are forced to do this thankless work. But others, including school groups, sororities and fraternities, churches and civic organizations, choose to pick up cans, food wrappers, cigarette butts.

Usually their only reward is a sore back and the pride they take in knowing they've done their part.

"In fact, we've been out there on the highway picking up trash and we've seen trash leave people's cars, which is amazing and disheartening," said Jerry Landewe, faculty sponsor of the science club at Notre Dame Regional High School.

People driving down Route K between Gordonville and Cape Girardeau on a Saturday morning may have noticed Landewe and his students walking the roadside with trash bags in hand. About four times a year, they patrol the stretch of highway from about two miles past the Interstate 55 intersection to about a mile before Route K meets Highway 25, picking up the trash others leave behind so carelessly.

Landewe said it feels like fighting a losing battle.

"Even on our stretch, which is a little bit removed from the city ... believe it or not, we pick up the same amount of bags every time we do this, so it is bad. It's not as bad as right across from Wal-Mart, but it's consistently trashy."

Sophomore Ashley Nenninger relates the hassle of picking up after the carelessness of others -- and the satisfaction.

"You're bending over all the time and your back starts to hurt and you have to carry the bags with you. Then when you get done you're driving to school and it looks a lot better."

Scott City Kiwanis Club president Paul Schock can relate to the feeling that people just don't care. His club joins with other civic organizations in Scott City for beautification efforts -- efforts that are communitywide but have lately focused once a month on the place where Interstate 55 zooms past the city.

"We've been finding that over the past year or so the highway is one of the biggest issues," Schock said. "Each month we actually go through about nine to 10 trash bags each time we clean up.

"Sometimes we also have people that will drive by as we're picking up things and they'll actually throw things."

The Jackson Elks Lodge is a civic organization fighting the battle in that city. The lodge also participates in the Adopt-A-Highway program, picking up trash along Route D. Like other groups, they don't do it for recognition.

"We don't want our property in front of our place dirty, and why should anyone else want their property littered up?" said lodge member Joe Brice. "So we want that area nice and clean-looking. If everyone felt that same way, we'd have the city cleaned up and everyone would benefit from it.

"It's part of Elkdom. We care about what goes on in the community and do whatever we can do to help."

Groups in more rural parts of the county are also combating litter. Daniel Phelps and his youth department at the First Baptist Church in Delta are organizing a citywide cleanup at the end of this month, with the whole church picking up litter along Highway 25 in Delta from one end of town to the other, a distance of about seven-tenths of a mile. If things go well, they may even go farther than that.

"It's just a good witness that we take pride in our community and we just do our part to try to keep it clean," Phelps said.

For some, picking up litter isn't a special occasion. For 65-year-old Joe Hoffmeister, who lives near Saxony Lutheran High School, it's become a habit.

"It's just something I feel like I need to do, you know?" said Hoffmeister. "I've done it all these years."

Even though the trash always comes back after a thorough cleaning, the volunteers know picking up junk is something that must be done.

"If you don't go do it now it's going to keep building up and building up and it's going to be even worse," Nenninger said.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182