Clean up, clean up …
Snowmass Sun
I don’t understand why people litter, and maybe they don’t always mean to, but they do, and so in order to keep our community the livable, visitable place it is, Snowmass Village organizes an annual volunteer cleanup day to pick up trash in public roadside areas throughout town.
About 40 or so volunteers showed up Friday ready to face the task, this reporter included. My group took Owl Creek and Highline roads, so we were largely along the road, in the ditches or along Owl Creek Trail.
Prizes were given out for most unusual piece of trash, so we were keeping our eyes out for some good finds. Some fun finds were lots of cigarette butts (thanks for not starting a fire?), lots of golf balls (hope those lessons paid off), a Droid smartphone and a hopefully unused needle (yikes).
There was a lot more than you’d think, probably because as the trash falls or gets thrown out it also gets swept aside by road crews during the winter. But the more volunteers, the faster it goes.
Alpine Bank sponsors Town Cleanup Day, and various businesses donate coffee and food, as well. Town staff members drive around making sure volunteers get water, trading out full trash bags for empty ones and giving rides to people who have to get on with their lives (although at one point, a friendly bus driver stopped to let us know she couldn’t stop for us. That provided entertainment for us for the rest of the morning.)
It’s a team effort, one that several local businesses were well-represented at, including Aspen Skiing Co., Destination Resorts and Douglas Elliman as well as some young families whose children were out of school Friday. Next year, you should be there, too.
