Volunteers work hard to make Texas a cleaner place

Photo by Christy Wooten/ The Daily Sentinel. Kayley Brookshire, left, 8, puts the first aluminum can in the recycle bin as the Don't Mess with Texas Trash-Off, which was sponsored locally by Keep Nacogdoches Beautiful and the Texas Department of Transportation, starts Saturday morning. Kayley, along with other members of Vineyard Church, picked up trash along two county roads. View a slideshow of the day's activities at DailySentinel.com.

Not all kids slept in on a Saturday morning. Central student council members got up at sunrise with one thing in mind. "Making our highways and roads pretty to look at and keep Texas beautiful," said Brooke Johnson, a volunteer. Their school is on Highway 69, so the roadway is their concern during the Don't Mess With Texas Trash Off. Hundreds of volunteers across Texas want other roadways kept clean.

Adopt a Highway is a great program, but what would it take to make it totally unnecessary? "If people wouldn't litter and would keep trash in the car and keep trash out of back of trucks so it doesn't fly away, wouldn't have this problem," explained Allison Beck, coordinator for the Adopt a Highway program in Nacogdoches County. Unfortunately, Keep Texas Beautiful and TxDOT don't see that happening any time soon. So, they promote grassroots efforts to educate and engage Texans in improving their community environment. "We hope by promoting these kinds of events, getting everyone out to help clean up their community that we can make a difference," said Debbie Stevens, Keep Nacogdoches Beautiful member and trash off coordinator. Statewide during last year's trash-off, 61,000 volunteers collected more than 5 million pounds of litter.

Click to read story by Donna McCollum, KTRE.

Click to read story by Michele Marcotte, The Daily Sentinel.