On Saturday, May 4, residents donned colored T-shirts for Keep North Attleborough Beautiful’s 11th annual Great American Cleanup.
Residents went around town picking up trash, for three hours.
The three areas which got the most attention included John Dietsch Boulevard, North Washington Street and Landry Avenue. Volunteers would wear a teal blue shirt with gloves and trash bags to represent the event.
Each volunteer had their own bag that they could fill up with litter in their selected areas, which they selected from the KNAB website.
“There’s so much garbage that you just don’t see when you are going about your daily life, so we are happy to help, because we love spending time outside.” said Heather Cole.
Heather and her two children, Avery and Liam, were volunteering on Landry Avenue during the cleanup.
“If an animal sees a bottle, it sees food, and it can really hurt the animal, so I want to help the environment,” Avery said.
John Guion, a member of the Cultural Council, was very happy with the turnout for the event.
“It’s pretty amazing,” he said. ”The amount of people that have shown up and volunteers within the community that want to be a part of this is pretty incredible.”
This was Guion’s first time being a part of the annual clean-up and he said that the weirdest thing that he found during the event was a “really large frisbee” with the most common things being nip bottles, vape pens and cigarette packs.
“I appreciate that it’s a personal choice for people to use those things, but to throw it out on the road when you’re driving — it’s kind of ridiculous how many we found,” Guion said.
As the clock struck 12 p.m., clean-up across the town was completed and volunteers all met at the high school with KNAB Executive Director Marsha Goldstein to commemorate the event with pizza and raffles. With over 500 people, she said there was a lot for the town to be proud .
“The event has gone beautifully, some people have said that they don’t see as much litter as they have in the past,” said Goldstein. “Some people think things are looking better because of the Litter Busters out all year round cleaning up.
The KNAB is always looking for more volunteers for its Little Busters program. For more information, contact Margaret Vigorito at KNABlitterbusters@gmail.com.
