Albany’s Stash the Trash event scheduled for Saturday

ALBANY — The Stash the Trash event, a volunteer effort to pick up litter, is scheduled to take place on Saturday.

On Thursday, several elected officials from the Albany came out to speak in support of the effort.

“We know how important it is for us to be able to keep our community clean,” Albany Mayor Dorothy Hubbard said. “We know that when people are coming in to visit us, we want them to come to a clean place … So, we’re just proud to be a part of this and proud to be able to encourage our community to do that.”

She went on to say that she encourages truck owners to put garbage in a bag and put it inside the vehicle instead of leaving it on the truck’s bed since the wind tends to blow it into the streets.

Asked how planning has gone for the event, Albany City Commissioner Jon Howard, who is on the Keep Albany-Dougherty Beautiful board, said turnout at past events has been “great” and that he would like to see people bring their children out to participate as well.

“Each year (through) our partnership with them, I make sure that I get an area that we’re going to pick up. (The) Rev. (Samuel) Sneed (is) in the area, so we decided that this would be a good area that we could pick up the trash (in),” Howard said.

Judy Bowles, the executive director of KADB, said she is looking forward to the annual event and hopes to match the success of previous efforts.

“We have 2,282 people signed up so far, and that makes an awesome statement for our community,” Bowles said. “Last year we cleaned 105 miles. We got 35 tons of debris off the streets and roadways of our community.”

The event will begin at 9 a.m. the Bethesda Community Church, located at 1719 Owens Ave., and move throughout the east Albany area. Residents who have placed tires, appliances and other debris outside can expect them to be picked up on Saturday.

Individuals can call KADB at (229) 430-5257 to sign up with a team to pick up litter with.