Dr. Litter Be Gone
I have lived on the west side of St. George my whole life. My daily route to get to work included taking Indian Hills Dr. and Black Ridge Dr. At least once a week I saw an older gentleman walking along either of these two roads. He always carried a plastic trash bag and one of those grabber reacher tools and picked up trash while he walked.
I always admired him and one day decided to stop and ask him why he did it and if I could submit an article about him to a local magazine. He declined the offer to be featured in the magazine but did take a minute to share his philosophy of socially redeeming duty.
He told me he was a doctor and ran his own local family medical practice for more than 25 years in St. George. It was a successful practice that provided for his family, put his kids through college, and gave him a strong sense of pride and accomplishment. He acknowledged very quickly that none of that would have been possible if it had not been for the residents of this community. They chose to come see him when they could just as easily have gone elsewhere. Upon retirement, he felt a strong sense of having a socially redeeming duty. He wanted to find a way to give back to the society that supported him. Henceforth he began taking long walks along Indian Hills, Black Ridge and in Tonaquint Park where he takes it upon himself to pick up discarded trash.
A New Partnership
Fast forward several years later, this story has stuck with me and inspired me to do the same thing. With that being said, we are so excited to announce that we are official partners with Love Where You Live Utah: Keep It Litter Free!! We will be helping them organize community clean up days and bringing our trailer our to throw all the trash the volunteers collect into. Our first clean up day will be on July 14th from 8am to 9am. Please spread the word! Invite friends and family to make their calendars for this date! We don’t have a location yet, but that will come! Everything you need will be provided. Just bring closed toe shoes and your awesome, go-getter attitudes and we will see you there!
