Albanians out in force to Stash the Trash

ALBANY — More than 2,000 volunteers showed up in downtown Albany Friday to raise awareness while cleaning up the streets as part of Keep Albany Dougherty County Beautiful’s annual “Stash the Trash” event.

This year’s theme for the event was “Beauty Dies Where Litter Lies,” and volunteers were asked to keep that in mind as they combed the streets of Albany and Dougherty County picking up litter and debris in teams.

One of the largest contingents, which was made up of Albany and Dougherty County officials and employees, gathered in front of the governmental building on Pine Avenue before breaking out into teams that went from Roosevelt Avenue to Whitney picking up litter.

Keep Albany Dougherty Beautiful Executive Director Judy Bowles said the governmental group, which included Albany Mayor Dorothy Hubbard, City Commissioner John Howard, Dougherty County Commission Chairman Chris Cohilas, Commissioner Ewell Lyle, Dougherty County Administrator Richard Crowdis, Dougherty County Sheriff Kevin Sproul and Emily Jean McAfee of Flint RiverQuarium.

“It’s about 12 to 14 blocks,” said Keep Albany Dougherty Beautiful (KADB) Executive Director Judy Bowles, “We give everybody a trash pick up tool and a bag they can hook to their belt and they get everything they can.”

Bowles said the volunteers leave bags of trash along the route which are picked up by garbage trucks the next day.

“The garbage trucks run the whole route on Saturday around 11 and they’ll tell me how much trash we picked up on Monday or Tuesday,” said Bowles. “Last year we got 28,000 tons, which is just ridiculous.”

Bowles said “Stash the Trash” is the organization’s largest event each year, not only because of the volume of trash that is picked up but because of the fact that it helps spread awareness of needing to be good stewards of the community be working to eliminate litter.

“It’s the biggest event and we have the most volunteers,” said Bowles. “It’s an awareness event because if the volunteers learn that once you pick up trash like this you see it in a different light. You won’t throw things out once you’ve picked up somebody else’s crap.”

While Bowles was infinitely proud of the way the streets looked once they were cleaned up, she was most proud of the many volunteers, which she maintains are the most critical part of KADB’s mission to clean up and instill pride in the community.

“It makes a great statement for this community to get 2,000 people to pick up litter,” said Bowles. “It says that without a shadow of a doubt the community doesn’t want litter. It’s a reflection on every one of us.”