Rotary Highway Cleanup a Success
Posted by Andrew Bissonnette
on Jun 04, 2016
Seven determined Rotarians and three of their children gathered early at the Sun Prairie YMCA on Saturday morning, June 4th, for the Highway 151 Clean-Up. Even as we were standing there, the rain was sputtering a little bit, but we were undeterred. Andy Bissonnette was the organizer and had all of the safety vests and bags, courtesy of the previous organizer, Rich Darga. Debbie Fox-Schroeder had brought three or four grabbers and passe them out as well.
The other Rotarians participating were Dan Presser (with his children Sam and Audrey), Laura Jennings (with her son Jacob), Jim Mastrangelo, Sue Halambeck, and Ann Oberle. Altogether we had a crew of 10 people which worked out very well. We put five people on each side of the highway. Everyone was walking against traffic, as is recommended for safety purposes. We had placed our cars strategically on the ramps so that everyone was walking towards their own car at the end of their walk.
There was plenty of trash to pick up and the group filled 27 or 28 large bags. The crew on one side came across three dead deer....we did not bag them up! Audrey Presser found a wallet with a driver's license and other personal items in it. Dan took it and will be calling or contacting that person to tell her where her stolen wallet ended up. We picked up lots of plastic bags, lots of plastic soda bottles, etc. We found car parts of all kinds. It rained lightly on us for maybe 10 or 15 minutes of our two and a half hours out on the road. This, despite a forecast for ongoing thunderstorms throughout the morning. We totally lucked out on the weather, although the farmers and our gardens were crying for more water.
At the end of our work, Andy provided cold bottled water as well as cold bottled beer. After sharing a drink there on the shoulder of the highway, six of us made our way over to Monks for a nice lunch together. Food seems to taste better after working up an appetite doing work outside, so this tasted great. Another successful community service project in the books!
