Scenes from Green Up Day
Hear CNS audio editor Leah Kelleher talk Green Up Day on VPR here.The segment also features podcast work from CNS reporters Nagusky, Connor Adams, and Reed Nye.
Students turn out in Burlington
From left: Morgan Eldh, 20, Ali Drew, 21, and Alex Townsend, 20. The group does Green Up every year. (Ibrahim Genzhiyev/Community News Service)
Burlington, Vt. — On the first day of May, the people of Burlington enjoy sunny weather and blooming scenery in the Waterfront Park — and volunteers around Vermont annually gather together and gather trash. Two groups covered Waterfront Park, all students from UVM and local high schools.
"We walked all the way down College Street to hear, and it was definitely a good experience," said Ali Drew, who has a major in environmental studies.
Though people are avoiding large gatherings, Green Up day was a COVID-friendly activity. Even in 2020, it took place since people can work together while maintaining social distance.
"We are just helping clean up the parks," says Caleb Ploesser. "I think everyone should just be picking up trash all the time, so we don't have to do it on one day out of the year."
Dylan Bassett organized his friends. After hearing about the Green-Up day from his mother, he Googled it. It was a surprisingly easy process of filling a form online, Bassett said.
Both Dylan's group and Drew's one are going to participate in Green-Up days in the future, they said. For some of them, it is already an annual tradition.
— Ibrahim Genzhiyev
Green Up Day fosters hope in Waterbury community after a bleak year
Waterbury resident Bill Minter, a seasoned Green Up Day volunteer, tends to a steady stream of cars and collects their copious spoils of roadside trash. Photo by Jenny Koppang.
In honor of the 51st Annual Green Up Day, Waterbury residents braved morning snow flurries and afternoon sun beams to collect roadside litter. After a long winter of pandemic-induced isolation, this May 1st was an especially meaningful celebration of togetherness.
“Green Up day is a great opportunity for individuals, especially in Covid time, to get back out and reconnect with their neighbors and with nature,” said Waterbury resident Karen Miller.
This was Miller’s first time partaking in an in-person community event since the pandemic first hit, and she said that she cherishes the ability to engage the community again and do her part in keeping Vermont beautiful.
Waterbury resident Bill Minter, who runs an afterschool program at Apple Tree Learning Center in Stowe, has dutifully volunteered at Green Up Day for as long as he can remember. He was stationed at the town garage on Guptil Road, helping unload towering bags of trash from a steady flow of cars.
Minter shared that he was particularly excited to finally hug his fellow vaccinated volunteers after a year of social distancing. As in every Green Up Day, he said he was impressed by the Waterbury community’s hard work and commitment to the cause.
“It’s great to see people, businesses, and community organizations step up, say ‘here we are’ and contribute.” Minter said.
One of these community organizations, the Waterbury Area Trail Alliance, planted a table at the Perry Hill trailhead and distributed Green Up Day bags.
Logan Shuman, a member of the group’s volunteer board, said that this was her first time participating in Green Up Day and she saw it as a wonderful way for people to pitch in and beautify Waterbury’s outdoor spaces. “This past year I think we’ve all been more isolated than we’ve liked to be, so an opportunity like Green Up Day where we can safely gather and make a difference in the community is important,” she said.
Off of Little River Road, Waterbury resident Dave Morse scoured for discarded bottles and cigarette butts in the brambles. Speaking as the owner of Dave’s Community Fitness of Waterbury, Morse said Green Up Day plays a significant role in supporting small businesses that are dependent on tourism. “It’s important to the whole picture of Vermont; this is a tourist destination and not only do we not like to look at the trash ourselves, but we need to clean it up for our guests,” he said.
UVM professor Matthew Dugan, his wife Heidi, and their neighbor Laura meticulously combed the guardrails leading up to Thatcher Brook Elementary School. Laura moved into their neighborhood right at the cusp of the pandemic and she said this Green Up Day has been her first opportunity to establish relationships within the community.
Left to right: Matthew Dugan, Laura, and Heidi Dugan are neighbors who were brought together for one of the first times by Green Up Day. Photo by Jenny Koppang.
“Laura put out a message to the neighborhood asking if we’d like to do this together, and it feels wonderful to be able to hang out and get to know somebody after Covid,” said Dugan. “We’re part of our tiny neighborhood but we’re also part of our bigger neighborhood here in Waterbury.”
Volunteers hauled their filled bags and other finds to two drop-off locations during the day. Downtown at Rodney Companion’s transfer station, a truck filled up fast with bags and random junk Green Up volunteers unloaded. A crew from SunCommon made multiple trips with more than 50 tires and bags of trash pulled from Butler’s Pond along Route 2 by nearby neighbors.
Waterbury Green Up coordinator Lisa Scagliotti was at the town highway garage where a steady stream of cars and trucks filed through to unload bags of bottles and cans, random trash, and muddy tires, some sloshing with streamwater. Other notable items included a fender from a car, a plastic cherub sculpture, multiple crispy brown Christmas wreaths, and a pair of rusted metal axe heads. A like-new slightly dirty plastic sled sat off to the side in the hope someone might take it home.
Scagliotti said this year’s turnout was up significantly from last year when Green Up Day was postponed due to the pandemic and the governor’s stay home/stay safe order. “This is much busier than last year - more like a ‘normal’ Green Up Day and people are happy to see each other.”
She said she would share an update on just how many people took part and how much they collected later in the week after she compiled tallies from groups and received word on the weight of the trash container.
John Malter attended the very first Green Up Day in 1970 and continues to support annual event 51 years later. As administrator for the Mad River Resource Management Alliance, his work involves coordinating disposal, reuse and recycling of a wide range of materials for local communities. Photo by Jenny Koppang.
Green Up Day veteran and administrator of the Mad River Resource Management Alliance, John Malter recalled how he drove a Vermont National Guard truck during the very first Green Up Day in 1970. Fifty-one years later, he arrived at the town garage to show his support while driving his Toyota Highlander displaying his one-of-a-kind “RECYCLE” license plate.
“Green Up Day is not only about beautification, it’s about team-building,” Malter said. “It makes me proud to be part of Vermont and to see how many people really cherish what we have.”
Malter said he was encouraged to see Waterbury families and young people gather to offer their time and energy, especially in such unprecedented circumstances.
“Green Up Day is not just the first Saturday in May. Green Up Day is every day.” Malter said.
—Jenny Koppang
Essex residents show up to green up
Sam Houghton, 12, with his video camera. (Jen Lannom/Community News Service)
Essex Junction, Vt. — Essex residents with bright green collection bags began the task of cleaning up their community during Vermont’s Green Up Day May 1.
A popular spot for many was the Amtrak train station where litter collects on the surrounding tracks and at the station itself. Right outside the station, just under a dozen residents had gathered with rakes to clear away leaves, branches and debris.
Twelve-year-old Sam Houghton stood to the side with his video camera, gripping his tripod as he crouched and bent to get better angles of the rakers. Houghton said he has been making short documentaries recently and thought Green Up Day would make for interesting content.
Houghton says he doesn’t know whether or not he would post the video anywhere. “I’ll probably give it to my mom and see what she wants to do with it,” Houghton said.
Just next to the station, a group had assembled to oversee bag collection. Among them was 12-year-old Noah Dennis, who said he and half a dozen other young boy scouts had come to participate. While this was Dennis’ first year taking part in Green Up Day, he said, “There’s a lot of trash this year. I haven’t seen a lot of trash [from the pandemic] yet, but there is more trash than I thought would be here.”
Further up the tracks, Sue Wilson, 45, was cleaning up the remnants of what used to be a homeless camp. While it appeared no one had settled there in some time, plastic and cigarette butts were buried deep under the trees. Wilson was attempting to get some of that aging trash away from the tracks. “There was an old homeless camp here, and it’s been abandoned for a while. But as it typically happens, stuff gets piled up, and it’s buried in there good.”
Danielle Wolf, 45, and Ellen Rapalje, 51, were part of a group walking along the tracks to search for trash with their families. “We’ve seen a ton of other people picking up trash this year. This was our first year doing Green Up Day, but we try to pick up trash all the time, not just on Green Up Day.”
— Jen Lannom and Kalena Wojtala
A Green Up Day coordinator’s journey
Adriane Martin, Essex Parks and Recreation program director and the Green Up Day coordinator in Essex, hasn’t spent her whole life in Vermont. She grew up in Massachusetts and first set foot in Vermont to attend UVM. After graduating in 2009, Adriane was looking for direction.
“I knew I wanted to stay in Vermont,” she said, “because I loved it here.”
Martin began working with the youth programs at CHIPS in Essex. Since she majored in Human Development and Studies, social work seemed a perfect fit.
Adriane Martin (LinkedIn Photo)
“It was 2009, things were tough for everyone. I didn’t just want a respectable job. I wanted something I could be invested in. Something that I knew would matter,” Martin said.
Martin worked with CHIPS for ten years before leaving for Essex Parks and Recreation, where she works now. Since she made the switch, Green Up Day has been a fixture of her spring schedule. Last year, Green Up Day was lowered in scale. A remote system was also put in place. Participants could access the signup sheet through an online QR code. During business hours, they could pick up bags outside the office, instead of needing to go in. The bags, usually chosen by number during signup, are provided in bundles of five. These accessibility changes will continue into this year’s proceedings.
“We used to have a barbecue outside the Public Works Dept as a little celebration,” Adriane said.
With COVID comes cutting down. The barbecue, unlike bags and signup, can’t be properly accommodated.
“I love that Green Up Day brings people together, despite any differences,” Adriane said.
She hopes that by next year, organizers will be able to bring back social and communal events.
“Anyone can do it. Most communities participate in it in some way. It feels very uniquely Vermont. That we care enough about our community to get out and clean up, beautify things,” Martin said.
Every year, her husband and son join her in doing their part. Adriane hopes that her son, and other children, can learn something from Green Up Day. “Getting youth engaged helps to instill that value of keeping things clean, looking nice, supporting the community,” Martin said.
— Noah Lafaso
Carol Adams (left), Ingrid Cichoski (right), and JoEllen Swaine (center) distribute free muffins and coffee in compostable bags and cups to Green Up Day participants outside of the Richmond Congregational Church on Saturday May 1, 2021. (Emily Shedd/Community News Service)
For Richmond residents, Greening Up is a year-round event
Richmond, Vt. — What began as a cold and cloudy day gradually warmed and turned sunny for the 51st annual Green Up Day in Vermont. In Richmond, residents dispersed throughout town to take part in both the trash pick-up and community bonding aspects of this event. Along with the incredible efforts that are sparked on this event each year, how does Richmond plan to continue building off of the mindset of environmental consciousness?
JoEllen Swaine was one of several volunteers offering free muffins and coffee to Green Up Day participants at the Richmond Congregational Church
“My husband and I have been greening up since we moved here,” Swaine said.
Swaine tends to a stretch of Kenyon Rd. every Green Up Day, and this year she found tires, hubcaps, bottles, and even a scooter along the road. “It really seems people use it for their personal dumping grounds,” said Swaine, “but luckily more and more people are trying to get out there and do their bit because they start seeing stuff laying in the ditches.”
Swaine hopes for an even greener future in Richmond, and said it’s a matter of raising awareness, and having people think about how that impacts the environment.
“Thinking about every piece of plastic you use is also important, because that’s what is really killing the environment,” Swaine said. In this spirit, the church distributed their muffins and coffee in compostable paper bags and cups.
Janet Morris, 62, a Richmond resident and retired healthcare worker, has also been participating in Green Up Day for several years and was found this morning in her bright pink beanie venturing through a ravine on Jericho Rd.
“I knew I wanted to hit this ravine, it’s got a lot of crap,” Morris said. Morris had already filled two bags of trash, found an old lawn chair, house siding and an air conditioning unit before 11 a.m., and still continued to find more to fill her green bags.
Morris mentioned the importance of the Richmond’s Conservation Commission. “There has been a lot more emphasis, especially since COVID, for trails and trailwork, and I think that effort makes people more aware of being outside and their impact,” Morris said.
“Communication about this day is also important, because people get aware through just seeing this stuff and the bags,” Morris said. “Covid bringing people outside and maybe making them a little more aware” may be one of the silver-linings of this pandemic.
Laura and Scott Silverstein with their son Calvin, bundled up in hats, gloves, and masks to beautify a stretch of Jericho Rd. in Richmond Saturday May 1, 2021. (Emily Shedd/Community News Service)
Ken Mincar, a Richmond resident, wore his bright pink gaiter for Green Up Day while he cleaned up a large amount of cigarette butts and other trash on Hinesburg Rd. While he reflected on years past with his kids, he continued this morning on an independent mission to partake in the day that really “makes Vermont look and feel the way it does,” Mincar said.
“I have noticed from year to year, after doing this stretch of road for 20 years, we are really just cleaning up the stuff from the last 12 months,” Mincar said.
“The obvious thing you think about every year is what motivates people to think it’s okay to just toss things out of the car,” Mincar said, “And if you could possibly inspire people to not do that.”
“Part of the reason why I do [Green Up Day] every year is that it’s occurred to me, I think it is one of the reasons why Vermont looks different,” Mincar said, “and when people come here and say ‘Vermont is so beautiful’ it’s not just because we’ve got great landscapes and we don’t have billboards… but I think because we don’t have trash on the roads, and when you go anywhere else you see it.”
Jacob Royer and Sau, Hinesburg residents, were also filling up green bags on the side of a busy curve of Hinesburg Rd.
“Our neighbors have lived in the area for a very long time and last weekend they got all the neighbors together to pick up our bags, and we sipped coffee outside and spread out on the lawn,” Sau said.
Coming together served as a “little community-building thing and got the neighborhood psyched about Green Up Day,” said Royer.
The importance of caring for the environment carries into both Royer and Sau’s individual choices and efforts apart from this one day, they said. “I have advocated for Leave No Trace and that kind of thing for a bit,” Sau said about her time working for GMC.
“And we’re both pretty into trail building and trail maintenance,” Royer said.
“I also have made the decision to, instead of cutting trees, hauling them away, and then buying lumber from the lumber yard, just getting a sawmill and turning everything into lumber on site,” Royer said.
Laura and Scott Silverstein and their son Calvin were found commanding the upper half of Jericho Rd. The family have been participants in Green Up Day for the four years since they moved to Richmond, with this being the second official time Calvin has come along. This year, the experience was uniquely special as Laura’s fully-vaccinated parents from Connecticut were able to join in the excitement for their first Green Up Day.
Green Up Day serves as a “good excuse to get outside and an easy way to make Vermont better for everybody,” Scott Silverstein said. Throughout the year, “it’s actually kind of hard in Richmond to find a place where there is a lot of garbage,” Laura Silverstein said, “So I think overall people do a really good job.”
— Emily Shedd
Green Up Day participants reflect on a year of a pandemic
Johana and Naomi pose in front of the dumpster after throwing away what they had collected from Mayfair Park on Saturday May 1, 2021. (Aidan Scanlon/Community News Service)
South Burlington, Vt. — Green-up day participants jump out of their cars, and pull big green bags of trash out of their trunks to be thrown into the awaiting dumpsters at South Burlington City Hall. Volunteers record how much trash the participants collected, and from where.
Erik Shonstrom, a 47-year-old professor at Champlain College, is one of those people who jumped out of their car with four bags packed full of trash, all gathered from the one block around his family’s home near Hayes Avenue.
“Because we live here I feel like we have a responsibility to take care of our neighborhood, and it actually felt really good to see a bunch of our neighbors out there collecting,” said Shonstrom.
Shonstrom said his family has been lucky this past year in the sense that none of them have gotten sick, and him and his wife have been able to work remotely.
One of the things Shonstrom misses the most from pre-pandemic life is Bikes and Bites, a South Burlington event that would have live music and food trucks every Thursday night.
Meaghan Emery, a city councilor, and her young daughter, Naomi, picked up five bags of trash from the forests behind Mayfair park. Naomi said she felt strongly about the importance of Green Up day.
“I mean a lot of people throw it away without thinking about it, but honestly it really does hurt the environment, we found lots of styrofoam, and it’s good that we picked it up because if we hadn’t it would’ve stayed there and probably hurt a lot of the animals around,” said Naomi.
Jarret managed to pick up six bags of trash with his kids, as well as a bunch of miscellaneous junk from Hinesburg Road.
“We have two young kids, an 8 and a 10-year-old, so it was great for them to get out and learn about cleaning up the community,” said Jarret.
Jarret and his family had to find a lot of new ways to stay active, entertained, and motivated throughout the pandemic.
The dumpsters will remain at city hall through the weekend to collect trash, as well as trucks to collect any wood or metal debris and tires.
— Aidan Scanlon
Hinesburg Selectboard Chair Phil Pouch (middle), and Darcie Mumley (left) and Bob Hyams (right) of the Hinesburg Conservation Commission stand with Green Up bags in hand at the CSWD Drop-Off Center in Hinesburg. (Maddy Holden/Community News Service)
Trash or treasure? Hinesburg finds out
Hinesburg, Vt. — Hinesburg residents bundled up and took to the town’s neighborhoods and streets to participate in Vermont’s annual Green Up Day.
Hinesburg Selectboard Chair Phil Pouech is the coordinator of Green Up Day in Hinesburg. Pouech said that he is happy this Vermont tradition persists in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, as picking up trash outside lends itself well to social distancing.
Pouech said that he does however miss the opportunity Green Up Day has given Hinesburg residents to all come together as a community in past years.
“We always had a community lunch at noon at the town hall. We would get 50-75 people. Last year we stopped doing that. This year we’re not having it. Maybe we’ll do it again next year,” Pouech said.
When asked to share a Green Up Day memory, Pouech said that many years ago, someone found a lockbox.
A letter sent to Hinesburg Selectboard Chair Phil Pouch from Hinesburg residents Nancy and Steve. (Maddy Holden/Community News Service)
“They brought it to the town hall and we got the news out here and everything. Turns out, it was from a robbery in Shelburne that happened a year prior. Only papers were found inside,” he said. “We used to have a contest for the craziest thing found on Green Up Day.”
While it might not be the craziest, perhaps the most endearing find from this year came enclosed in a letter from Hinesburg residents Nancy and Steve. According to the letter, Nancy and Steve had never participated in Green Up Day before. They were taken aback by how much trash they found and committed themselves to pick up everything in sight on their Green Up route.
Everything including a twenty-dollar bill that Nancy enclosed in a handwritten letter to Pouech.
While some participated in Green Up Day for the first time this year, others have been doing this for years. Kristy McLeod and her husband Carl Bohlen were stationed at the Hinesburg Town Hall in the morning checking people in, signing them up, marking off their destination and handing out bags.
“I started when I was in high school back in 1970 during the first one,” McLeod said.
The couple has been checking people in for 10 years, and still go out on their own to collect trash on Green Up Day.
“We’ve done it through the years and we always did it with our kids when they were growing up. It became a tradition,” said McLeod.
Bringing her kids out to help on Green Up Day is also a tradition of Darcie Mumley of the Hinesburg Conservation Commission. Before Green Up Day, her kids are always excitedly asking ‘Where are we gonna go clean up?,’ Mumley said.
At 8 and 10, Mumley said her kids understand the concept of Green Up Day. “But even when they were really little and didn’t understand the concept, they still liked cleaning up trash. And they’re really good at it!” Mumley said.
Kristy McLeod and Carl Bohlen checking people in, signing them up, marking off their destination, and handing out bags at the Hinesburg Town Hall. “It’s been years,” said McLeod when asked how long she and her husband have been participating in Green Up Day. (Maddy Holden/Community News Service)
Mumley and Bob Hyams, also of the Hinesburg Conservation Commission, were fulfilling their commission duty of staffing the CSWD Drop-Off Center in Hinesburg. People came to drop off loads of trash of all sizes on the day of. A couple even had to back up towards the pile to unload.
Hyams has been participating in Green Up Day for 15 years, and called it a “wonderful Vermont tradition.”
“In other states, people clean up trash for community service. Here, people haven’t even committed any crimes and they’re cleaning up the roadsides,” Hyams said. “People are finding more hazardous materials. Bottles filled with spit from people chewing and hypodermic needles. It didn’t use to be that way,”
Mumley said that she has never stumbled across these things with her kids, as they tend to stay in neighborhoods. McLeod and Bohlen make a point to suggest safe areas to collect for people who bring their children to help.
“And let’s not forget the masks,” said Hyams when asked about trends in collected items.
Driving through Hinesburg, one will notice all the green trash bags busting at the seams lining the streets. In the days following Green Up Day, people from the town of Hinesburg go around collecting the bags.
— Maddy Holden
Team “Trash Talk” poses in front of the dumpster in the City Hall Parking Lot.
Left to Right: Hailey, Ben, Morgan, Sarah and Doug (Claire MacQueen/ Community News Service)
Green Up Day is back in South Burlington
South Burlington, Vt. – South Burlington's Annual Green-Up Day was back in full swing after a pandemic-related hiatus in 2020.
Volunteers from South Burlington’s Rotary club, as well as from South Burlington High School’s Coalition for Community Service and Key clubs, manned the station set up at City Hall from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. They handed out green trash bags to volunteers and, once those bags were full, helped dispose of the gathered trash and marked down where volunteers had been.
The demographic of volunteers was broad: it was some volunteers' first Green Up Day, and for others, this event was a longstanding family tradition.
John, 31, and Vivian, an elementary schooler, have been participating in Green Up day for three years, since Vivian was four years old.
“She’s always excited to wake up on Green Up day and get out, and usually even a couple weeks ahead of time,” said John Black, referring to Vivian.
“My favorite part is probably that I get to walk around,” Vivan said. “It’s just fun outside!”
Bennett Doherty, 25, moved to the city less than a week before and noticed the Green up day set up at City Hall as he was on a morning jog.
Members of the South Burlington Rotary Club give bags to a volunteer. Though the day began grey and overcast, the sky cleared and the sun began to shine as the day went on. (Claire MacQueen/ Community News Service)
“I was just running by and then saw it, so I grabbed a bag and cleaned up. I wasn’t aware of it beforehand, but this is great,” Doherty said. “I don’t know a whole lot about it, but it’s nice to see that this goes on. It’s not so much a thing where I’m from, and it’s great that it’s happening here, and it’s really easy to do too.”
Chuck Rainville, 62, hadn’t done Green Up Day for a few years but did it often with his children when they were younger, around twenty years ago.
As volunteers returned, where they had cleaned was marked on a map of South Burlington to provide some direction to other volunteers. (Claire MacQueen/ Community News Service)
“It’s disheartening to see what people have thrown out on the sides of the roads, but it always feels good to clean up,” said Rainville.
Along his pick-up route, he’d gathered hubcaps, exhaust components and a motorcycle tire in addition to other trash.
Anela Dobraca, a hairdresser, dropped off two full bags of trash and picked up two more to fill up over the weekend.
“I feel like it’s very important to help mother nature. Obviously there are things that we use that don’t disappear and I think it’s important for the community to get involved and help clean up so we can all enjoy a more beautiful Earth,” said Dobraca.
It was her first official Green Up Day, and Dobraca spoke about her disappointment when Green Up Day was cancelled last year. “I called around and I was trying to figure out how I can partake and participate, so I made it my priority to make up for it this year,” said Dobraca.
“I use the woods behind my house every day, and it’s really disappointing to see the amount of trash. I feel good cleaning it up, and now I know I can walk through it or jog through it, walk my dogs through it, and not see some of that for a while,” said Dobraca.
Hailey, Ben, Morgan, Sarah and Doug formed “Team Trash Talk,” which brought in ten full bags of trash. A couple of the team members grew up in Vermont, and had been participating in Green Up Day since they were little.
They mentioned that it was encouraging to see others outside participating in Green Up Day as well. The group recalled, laughing, that some people who drove by would honk or yell words of encouragement at the group.
They noticed the effects of the pandemic in the amount and contents of the litter they gathered.
“Double the trash. Lots of masks, lots of clorox wipes,” one of the members noted. “But it’s exciting that things are starting to feel a little more normal again.”
– Claire MacQueen
Lakeview Union students Christoper Tongelai (left) and Jin Ramsay (right) show off all of the garbage they have picked up for Green Up Day. (Anna Kolosky/Community News Service)
It’s all about the kids at Greensboro’s Green Up Day
Greensboro, Vt. — Off the side of the road, a couple of people heave green bags into the back of their pickup trucks while two young boys jump around the truck bed.
Sarah Hunt, 43, a local bartender, finds Green Up Day to be great for teaching her kids to care for the environment.
“I live here and I walk around here all the time,” Hunt said. “To walk around and see trash is really gross. And I want to teach my kid that throwing things on the ground is not ok.”
Selena Mochizuki, 41, a dental center worker, also sees the importance of using Green-Up Day to teach her kids respect.
“We want to teach our kids responsibility,” Mochizuki said. “Everyone has to do their bit, and we want to teach them to not throw trash on their own”
Hunt noted that Green Up Day should be more of a widespread event, such as having schools take students outside to clean up trash.
“I used to be a high school teacher and I used to take my students to do Green Up,” Hunt said. “I think they should be doing that more on the school level.”
Despite a cold day and a year of COVID, the town of Greensboro came together to support their Green-up Day endeavors.
“It’s great that they provided snacks and water for everyone,” Mochizuki said. “It’s something you can do outside so everyone can still participate,” Mochizuki said
Lakeview Union students Jin Ramsay, 10, and Christopher Tongelai, 10, echoed this sentiment with their enthusiasm about the environment.
“Littering is really infecting our environment,” Tongelai said. “And it would be good if we could make a change to stop that.”
— Anna Kolosky
Vergennes, Vt. — Lowell Bertrand, the Vergennes Green Up Day coordinator, and his daughter, co-coordinator, Sierra Bertrand.
The two are co-chairs of Green Up day in Vergennes. Their job is to hand out bags, collect numbers, assign jobs. This afternoon they will pick up bags left around town and bring them to the dump.
— Lucy Heisey
Vergennes, Vt. — Dawn Wagner, the owner of the Daily Chocolate in Vergennes.
Participants in Green Up Day were eligible to receive a free chocolate from the Daily Chocolate in downtown Vergennes. Jeremy Holm and his daughters were advertising the promotion for their family business. Find the Daily Chocolate on Instagram @dailychocolate_vt.
— Lucy Heisey
Vergennes, Vt. — Pack 539: The Wolves and Tigers; Colvon, Bryce, Chase, Harper, Kellan, and Damon.
Troop 539 was spotted on McDonough drive collecting trash for Green Up Day. One of the scouts said that the most interesting thing that they found was an onion.
— Megan Slevin
Hardwick recovery group gives back
From left to right: Teen Challenge Members, Marina Kinney, Chelsea Bixby, Jessica Sheridan, Kelly Young, Megan Puryear and Deb Olsen pose as they take a break from picking up trash on Hardwick’s Main Street. (Anna Kolosky/Community News Service)
Hardwick, Vt. — On a cold, cloudy May day, a group of women spread out across Hardwick’s Main Street picking up trash and exchanging banter. All members of Teen Challenge Vermont, an addiction treatment center in Johnson, Vt., they were more than excited to be outside helping the community.
Clad in a colorful scarf, southern Vermont native Kelly Young was bursting with enthusiasm for Green Up Day.
From left to right: Teen Challenge Members, Marina Kinney, Chelsea Bixby, Jessica Sheridan, Kelly Young, Megan Puryear and Deb Olsen pose as they take a break from picking up trash on Hardwick’s Main Street. (Anna Kolosky/Community News Service)
“I just love my state,” Young said. “I lived down in Tennessee for 24 years, and when I went down in ‘98 I noticed two things: billboards and trash. So, anytime there’s an opportunity to keep our streets clean I’m all for it.”
After a year of living in a pandemic, Young noted that there was a big difference in trash and the attitude towards Green Up Day.
“Masks, I found several masks on the street,” Young said. “Hopefully people aren’t afraid to get out, plus fresh air is good.”
While the team had collected a good deal of trash, Chelsie Bixby, Young’s friend and fellow Teen Challenge member, commented on the difference in trash across states.
“Even neighboring states have a lot more trash,” Bixby said. “If you’re in Manchester, New Hampshire, it would take us an hour to do a block. So, it seems a lot cleaner around here.”
Young also observed how Vermont’s cold weather may play a part in the amount of litter that exists.
“If Vermont had better weather there would be more people that live here. So, of course when you go down south there’s more trash because it is more populated,” Young said. “But, there is trash, not like down south, but it’s still there.”
Jessica Sheridan, another friend and fellow Teen Challenge member, noted how long it had been since she had been able to help her community.
“I haven’t picked up trash since I was a little girl,” Sheridan said. “This is our first chance to get out and do something.”
For Young, Green Up Day is more than just cleaning up the town, it’s about giving back and being part of the community.
“In recovery, an important thing for me is to give back to the community. I don’t want to just take,” Young said. “We get so many donations, and we are so blessed. And so now is the time to start giving back, because it all comes full circle.”
After a day of giving back, Young and her friends were looking forward to one final thing at the end of the day.
“A hot cup of coffee,” Young chuckled as her friends hummed in agreement. “Definitely looking forward to that.”
— Anna Kolosky
