Adopt-A-Highway Program searches for volunteers to "get the community cleaner"

Adopt-A-Highway Program searches for volunteers to “get the community cleaner”

Adopt-A-Highway Program searches for volunteers to "get the community cleaner"

MEQUON (WITI) -- Now that the snow is gone, it's pretty clear what drivers have left behind. The Adopt-A-Highway season is back as volunteers go through the paces of picking up roadside garbage.

A day before Easter Sunday and one family is one the hunt -- all thanks to a couple of bad eggs.

"We're finding plenty of garbage," said Amy Gierach, Adopt-A-Highway volunteer.

Amy Gierach is leading a group on the west side of Cedarburg Road, they call her mom. They are members of Lindenwood 4-H in Mequon. The club is a long-time supporter of Wisconsin's Adopt-A-Highway Program.

"When my first daughter started 4-H in 2002, we were already doing it. So this has been something Lindenwood has been doing for a long time," said Gierach.

Jim Gennrich manages several hundred volunteers who have adopted stretches of pavement between Mequon and Thiensville.

"Well, you first of all decide that you want to take pride in your community and you want to get the community cleaner," said Gennrich.

Gennrich and Mequon are on the same page. The city just started its own Adopt-A-Highway Program to pick up city streets.

"A lot of times a lot of garbage, but it can be fun seeing what you find," said Gierach.

Believe it or not, Jim Gennrich says a lot of highway litter is inadvertent.

"And there is lots of stuff. There's clothes and shoes and things that people didn't intend to leave behind. It's not all people throwing stuff out of the car. That's about half of it," said Gennrich.

The other half, you can decide.

The state program is first come first serve for a specific stretch of road.

If you would like to adopt your own highway or for more information, CLICK HERE.