Lose The Litter Event Is Becoming Part Of A Much Larger Earth Day Effort

By Shannon Hicks

The snow has melted, perhaps for the last time this season, and the trash that has been piling up along Newtown’s roadways during the winter is becoming more apparent by the day. It is an ugly, unattractive — and wholly unnecessary — sight. Soda and beer cans muddied with dirt and road salt are beginning to rust. Papers and plastic shopping bags flitter against limbs and branches. Cigarette butts and other items have been carelessly tossed from a passing car or from the hand of a pedestrian too concerned with something else to bring their trash home… it is all there.

Litter found along a road or street that runs in front of residential properties will be picked up by most homeowners, but what about the rest of the trash that is out there?

For years, Newtown Lions Club has sponsored Lose The Litter Day. The townwide effort to clean up primary and secondary roadsides will again return, this time coinciding with an equally large effort to observe Earth Day 2009. The Lions Club has teamed up with the town’s Clean Energy Task Force and will be one of the groups participating in Earth Day 2009 when Newtown’s celebration returns to Newtown Middle School on Saturday, April 25.

“It’s time to make it nicer in Newtown,” said Ed Miklaszewski, referring to a longtime motto for our hometown. “It takes a lot of work to make is nice here,” continued the Lions Club member, who is chairman of the 19th Lose the Litter event.

Residents will once again have the opportunity to clean up roadsides in town. Newtown’s Public Works department has provided plastic gloves and bags for the Lions to give to volunteers, who can pick up those tools at the middle school from 9 am to 1 pm on April 25, although the actual cleanup may be done at any time during the day. Lose The Litter will run rain or shine.

Volunteers may select a particular road or they may be assigned a road on the day of the event. Participants who find one of the coveted “golden cans” will win tickets to the movies at the Edmond Town Hall. The collected litter collected may be dropped off at the Highway Department on Turkey Roost Road.

Judy Holmes and the Newtown Environmental Action Team, which ran the program for the first six years, started Lose the Litter Day in 1990. After working together for a few years, the torch was passed from the now-defunct NEAT to the Lions, who have continued the project, by 2000

“We’ll be doing everything we’ve been doing for years — gloves, bags, road assignments, everything,” said Mr Miklaszewski. “This year we can also sign off for high school students who want or need community service hours. Something like this is perfect for college transcripts.”

Boy and Girl Scout troops, other youth groups and families are also encouraged to work together.

The Lions are looking for individuals to act as road captains to line up volunteers for the event. Anyone interested in more information or in volunteering for a particular road may call Mr Miklaszewski at 426-2759.

Earth Day Newtown 2009

The Earth Day 2009 event will run from 10 am to 4 pm.

Mr Miklaszewski recently met with Terrence Ford, a member of the Clean Energy Task Force, and Ben Roberts, who is planning to participate in the full event at the middle school next month, to discuss the Earth Day event. It will be the second annual undertaking led by Mr Ford and Dan Holmes, the Energy Task Force chairman.

“We’re trying to centralize the Earth Day efforts of nonprofit groups. One of the reasons for this event was there are so many groups, and so many natural resources that people want to protect, that it makes sense to work together,” said Mr Ford. “We want to get any group who has an interest in the environment involved in this. We’re shooting for more awareness, more community involvement, at a larger level.”

Ben Roberts, the owner of First Affirmative Financial Network, LLC (“My business is green investing,” he said), will be one of the vendors this year. Mr Ford is hoping Mr Roberts’s environmental maze will be a large draw for the younger environmentalists in town.

Mr Roberts is planning a kid-oriented challenge and exhibit. He is hoping to connect with groups from the middle and high schools to work on planning, designing, and building the maze, which will challenge those going through it with related questions.

“Kids will have to answer questions in order to move through the maze,” he said. “If they answer correctly, they’ll be told which is the correct way to move forward. If they don’t get the correct answer…. well, that’s still being worked out.”

Volunteers of all ages, individuals and groups, are needed to help with this project. Contact Mr Roberts at 426-5088.

The 2008 Earth Day Celebration was very successful, with attendees of all ages meeting members of Newtown Conservation Commission, Newtown Forest Association, The Pootatuck Watershed Association, Trout Unlimited, and other environmental groups, along with conservation-minded businesses like The Graceful Planet, Mocha Coffeehouse, and Our Green House.

Earth Day coordinators have already heard from Candlewood Valley-TU, Community Energy, Fuel Cell Energy Corporation, Homes Fine Gardens, Mocha, NFA, Newtown High School’s Ecology Club, Pootatuck Valley Watershed, and Techniart, all of whom will have committed to be part of this year’s event.

“We have about a dozen vendors already, and expect to hear from others,” said Mr Roberts. “This will be a very good opportunity to get yourself out in front of people who are environmentally conscious and aware.”

Sponsors have already come forward too, which is very encouraging for Mr Ford.

“Last year Dan and I put this thing together with sponsorship from Taunton Press and about $500 out of our pockets,” he said. This year he and Mr Holmes have already heard from Taunton Press as well as Iroquois and SolarWorks. “We’re very encouraged,” he said.

Guided nature walks along Al’s Trail are being planned for April 25, and other programs are also in the works. To participate in any way or for more information, contact Terrence Ford at 203-526-8247 or Dan Holmes at 270-3331.