By Geena Monahan—For the North Star Reporter
Under cool, cloudy skies and occasional rain showers, hundreds of volunteers fanned out across town for Keep North Attleborough Beautiful’s annual Great American Cleanup, collecting litter from roadsides, neighborhoods and public spaces.
Check-in began at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 2, at North Attleborough High School, where participants picked up supplies before the morning cleanup, which ran until about noon.
While the weather threatened at times, participants said it did little to dampen turnout or spirits.
“It’s our first year doing this,” said Kelly Valverde, who worked with two family members by the High Street soccer fields. “We just wanted to do something nice.”
By late morning, the group had filled about a bag and a half with trash, much of it small ‘nip’ alcohol bottles, Valverde said — a type of litter that event organizer and former KNAB board member Diane Hermenau said has become more prevalent in recent years.
Last year’s cleanup yielded about 3.9 tons of trash, underscoring the scale of the effort and the continued need for community participation. The total amount of trash collected this year was not available from the town’s Solid Waste Division by press time.
Across town by North Attleborough High School, three college students — all North Attleborough natives — continued a tradition they said has become a yearly routine.
“We’ve done it for a few years,” said Sophia Vitorino. “I first did it many years ago with a childhood friend and now we just keep up with it.”
The group, which included Gwyneth Gunn and Adam Gohain, worked along Landry Avenue, where they encountered bottles, cans, fragments from discarded toys, wrappers and netting. For Gohain, the experience revealed a different perspective on familiar surroundings.
“You occasionally see litter around, but it’s not until you go out and look for it that you notice the sheer breadth,” he said, pointing toward a nearby ravine. “There’s trash as far as the eye can see.”
Gunn said the day also raised questions about personal responsibility.
“The three of us would never litter,” she said. “So it makes you wonder — why would somebody else do that? It’s just confusing.”
Despite a steady drizzle and the volume of trash still visible nearby, the group remained upbeat.
“We’re still in good spirits,” Gohain said.
For Vitorino and her friends, the cleanup is about more than just picking up trash — it’s about taking an active role in maintaining their community.
“We have a really successful cleanup every year,” Vitorino said. “A ton of people go out and you can really see the difference before and after. I just wish it was more than once a year.”
This year also marked a small but notable shift in how the event itself was run. For the first time, organizers moved away from distributing single-use water bottles in order to reduce waste generated by the cleanup.
According to Hermenau, 565 people registered in advance of this year’s event, with an estimated 450 to 500 ultimately picking up supplies and participating.
Following the cleanup, 238 volunteers registered for a pizza gathering back at the high school, with about half attending. The event was supported by seven local pizza shops that donated food.
“It’s about community pride,” Hermenau said of the cleanup. “People want to take care of where they live and make it a place that’s clean and welcoming.”