If you’ve lived in Hopewell Valley for any length of time, odds are you have seen groups of people in orange vests walking up and down local streets picking up litter and recyclables as part of the Clean Communities program. It’s been going on for so long, there’s a good chance you or a family member have participated.
New Jersey Clean Communities is a statewide program funded by a tax on businesses that may produce litter-generating products. Municipalities abide by spending guidelines for litter-abatement programs.
Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space administers the Clean Communities program for Hopewell Township by advertising the dates, assigning clean up areas, providing vests, gloves and garbage bags, and tracking the number of hours participants have worked. In return, participants receive a T-shirt and their designated nonprofit or school club is paid for their time.
In 2021, cumulative donations to nonprofits surpassed $100,000! That’s about 13,000 hours of trash pickup time. The most frequent participants are Scout troops, but we’ve donated cleanup time payments to hundreds of nonprofits.
The program has been around so long that at least once a year, FoHVOS receives request from a family member saying Dad or Grandpa’s favorite FoHVOS Clean Communities T-shirt is threadbare and they want to get him a new one like it. We updated the shirt design several years ago, but otherwise, our program hasn’t changed in over a decade.
FoHVOS and Hopewell Township are looking into revamping Clean Communities in 2022. At a minimum, we should consider raising the hourly wage for greater impact.
As research for this column, I sent an email to some previous Clean Communities participants and asked them to share their stories. All respondents wanted to help improve the environment and community, and some were surprised about what folks toss. Other unique reasons for participation also surfaced: from preferring cleanup work to selling cookies, to paying it forward for the next group that follows, to funding a trip.
Here are some responses:
From Leeann Thornton, Girl Scout leader for Troop 70073: “The kids are now middle schoolers, but we have participated in Clean Communities at least five times over the last five years. The kids are always astonished to find what people throw out of their cars and it helps them remember to get their own trash into the correct bin. It helps that the grant gives the troop some money because a few of the kids prefer earning money for the troop by working instead of selling cookies.”
Carolyn McGrath, CHS art teach and advisor to the Youth Environmental Society at HVCHS shared a picture of the club woring to raise money for the Outdoor Equity Alliance.
Elise McCoy, assistant scoutmaster, shared that Scout Troop BSA 41 of Pennington has participated in Clean Communites over 10 years and shared a photo.
JoAnne Bush shared two pictures from Girl Scout Troop 71833, of scouts who are in 5th and 12th grade. She writes: “Since second grade, we’ve tried to participate in the clean-ups both spring and fall. With the girls and both leaders (Lisa Palmieri and me) working together, we average about $100 for the troop. We always use part of the money to purchase ingredients for cornbread we bake for the TASK Thanksgiving meal (we average about 50 loaves each year), and the rest goes toward camping or experiences for the girls.
“For instance, this year, we’re traveling to New York City in December, and then in January we’ll be camping a weekend at the Pocono Environmental Education Center to earn our Survival Camper badge! All possible with the proceeds from clean-up day!”
Terry Pisauro said that the Hopewell Lacrosse team has participated for several years. She adds, “The check comes in after the season ends, so we’ve explained to the boys that it is a “pay it forward” effort that benefits the team that follows them.”
With $100,000 in donations and lots of motivated participants, expect Clean Communities to continue for many years to come.
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