People taking part in the 2020 highway clean up ( file photo/CHAT NEWS)

By Tiffany Goodwein

Highway cleanup sees organizations roll up sleeves

Sep 19, 2020 | 4:55 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB- On an early and smoky Saturday morning, Highway 41 was lit up with spots of bright orange. Those spots, predominantly young people, with some as young as nine. Each strapping on their orange vests and rolling up their sleeves for the annual highway cleanup.

“Look what I found,” was a commonly said phrase as groups of kids conquered the edges of the highway, alongside supervising adults.

The annual highway cleanup was supposed to take place this spring but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The provincial program allows non-profit groups the ability to earn $100 per kilometer towards their organization.

Here in Medicine Hat, 4H clubs rolled up their sleeves in an effort to leave the area alongside the highway cleaner than before.

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“It’s a lot of fun. It’s entertaining and eventful, especially when you find random and weird things,” 14-year-old Charletan Sandford said.

As Sandford and her group of friends combed through the ditches their orange garbage bags soon begin to fill up.

“ Well we pick up a whole bunch of plastics and a whole bunch of Tim Hortons cups, and cans, and lots of straws, and lots of paper bags,” said 11-year-old Ridley Elliott.

But some trash discovered on the side of the road can be particularly peculiar.

“Last year, for instance, I found a collage of barbed wire and coffee cups in each rivet of the barbed wire, so that, that was strange,” Sandford said.

For 11-year-old Madison Kearley, the strangest thing she ever found in her three years of participating in the highway clean up is a little more jaw-dropping.

“A baby pair of underwear.. yeah,….from a suitcase,” she said.

“I don’t know It must of flown out of someone’s truck box or something, and it was just kind of crazy,” she said.

Within the hour of the team scouring the edges of the highway, old jeans, a hoodie, glass, and cans were among some of the items swept up.

The amount of trash found along the side of the highway has participants of the highway cleanup urging drivers to think before they throw.

“People should be taking care of the environment more, and it’s kind of sad how you can see all this garbage, and it’s hurting our animals and our farmland,” Kearley said.

About 50 people involved in 4H participated in the annual highway cleanup near Medicine Hat.