Highway cleanup project is a bonding experience

It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it. On the other hand, Debbie Greenberg said, it can actually be a nice social experience. Cleaning up highway trash, that is.

On Sunday, about two dozen volunteers spent two hours cleaning the east side of Alternate 69 Highway from on-ramp to off-ramp (a one-mile section between College Boulevard and 119th  Street — exits 142-143) and collected about 40 bags of trash.

The highway cleanup project is sponsored by the community social justice/action task force, which represents the Rabbinical Association, the Jewish Federation, tovkc and most Jewish synagogues.

About a half-dozen of the volunteers out on Sunday were children between the ages of 11 and 15.

Greenberg, a volunteer on the task force and social-action chairperson for Congregation Beth Israel Abraham & Voliner, said the Rabbinical Association decided to get social-action chairs from each synagogue together for a community-wide program. The roadside-cleanup project seemed to be a good fit for everyone.

“Our goal is to get people across the board, and I feel like we had a lot of synagogues represented,” Greenberg said.

The program has been up and running for about a year and since then, there have been three pickups. Greenberg said the Highway Patrol requires at least a one-year commitment; then the project will continue based on the number of people who volunteer.

Before beginning the project, the Highway Patrol had the committee chairs watch a safety-training film. From then on, it has been up to the committee chairs to see that the training is enforced. In addition to commonsense rules, the guidelines include these stipulations:

• Participants must be at least 11 years old, and those ages 11-18 must be accompanied by at least one person over 21; and

• Participants are not to pick up dead animals or broken glass.

All volunteers must sign a consent form and wear an orange safety vest (provided by the Highway Patrol), gloves and, preferably, long pants and a long-sleeved shirt. The group also is required to have a first-aid kit with them. And they’ve learned to have bottled water, as well.

Bags of trash are left on the side of the road and picked up by the Kansas Department of Transportation within a couple of days. Greenberg said their haul has included such things as tire treads, an unopened sandwich from McDonald’s, shoes and hubcaps.

Challenging experiences
“The most challenging thing is that you have to bend over each time you pick something up,” Greenberg said. “I’m trying to get the Jewish Community Center to get some of their personal-training clients out there picking up trash because it’s a pretty good workout. You have to bend down every step you take.”

This committee has signed up for cleanup duty three times a year: April, July and October. Greenberg said she hopes a Boy Scout troop or one of the synagogues’ social-action committees will do a couple more because three times a year just isn’t enough to keep the highway clean.

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