Karen Moseley, executive director of Keep Simpson County Beautiful (KSCB), says she is excited about an event to clean up the streets of the county, The Great Simpson County Clean Up, set for Saturday, March 22 from 8 a.m. until noon.
Five sites throughout the county will be manned during that four hour period during which volunteers may pick up trash bags and gloves for litter collection. Each person or group is asked to select a road or roads to pick up litter and then return their full bags to the original pick up site. A trailer or truck will be available at each location for litter disposal. In addition, Moseley asks those who participate in the cleanup to document their work with before and after photos.
In addition, participants will register their names, phone numbers and the names of the roads or streets they selected for cleaning. Names of individuals who collect five bags of litter will lhave their names listed five times for drawings for door prizes at the end of the event.
The five location sites are Braxton Town Hall; Harrisville County Barn; Army National Guard, Magee; SC Sheriff’s Office, Mendenhall; and Pinola Fire Department. Moseley reiterated several times that only litter is to be picked up, not household garbage.
Oxford Languages on line defines litter as trash, such as paper, cans, and bottles, left lying in an open or public place. According to Moseley, “Litter is a major blight for communities. I went and raked pine straw on my road and filled up my side by side with litter. Some of it is intentional. I think probably a lot of it is not intentional. People put something in the bed of their truck and it flies out of their truck. I’ve literally seen a garbage bag fall off the back end of a garbage truck and they didn’t stop to pick it up. It got hit by a million cars and was scattered to Timbuktu!”
Another reason for the documentation of pick up is keep an eye on those areas after the cleanup day to determine whether litter is a chronic issue in that spot. Moseley wants to get the community more involved in prevention rather than reaction. “I would love to see communities take it upon themselves to clean up once a month without it being a big thing.”
The morning will wrap up with a cookout at Braxton Community Park. “We’re going to cook sausage dogs and will do the drawing for the prizes that we have; however, they don’t have to be present to win a door prize,” Moseley explained.
Donations include 200 sausage dogs from Polk’s Meat Products; onions and peppers from Donna’s Produce, and Vowell’s provided a gift card to purchase the buns. Moseley added that she is working on donations from other businesses to supply chips and cookies. Several Simpson County businesses have donated items for door prizes and she continues that effort as well. A membership drive for KSCB will be held at the same time.
Moseley believes it is imperative to teach children to take pride in community to care for the world in which they live, “taking care of God’s earth. It starts with us adults to set the example, to say we don’t want it to look like this. Plus it’s an economic development thing.” Using Magee generically she said, “Magee is a pretty town and it’s up and coming. Look at what’s going on here! Or look at the garbage all on the side of the road. It makes a difference.”
“I would love to see an army of 200 people across this county get out for a few hours and pick litter up. That would be massive. That’s how many sausage dogs Polk’s has donated so that’s my goal! We’ve got some great communities and we’ve got to take care of them. We’ve got to teach our children to take care of them.”
For more information about Keep Simpson County Beautiful or the cleanup day, contact Karen Moseley at 601-259-8764 or scb@gmail.com.
