Litter! No More Excuses For Not Helping!

I received a phone call earlier this week from Mr. and Mrs. Buck Saunders, Huntington residents who live in the sixteen-hundred block of 13th Avenue. Buck and Mary Ann are blind, and they are members of the Cabell-Huntington branch of the National Federation of the Blind, and Mary Ann is the current president of the local chapter.

Their reason for calling me was presented very succinctly. Buck simply stated, "Even blind people don't like litter. We want to volunteer and do our part for the Adopt YOUR Block - Be a Litter-Gitter group." I was stunned. I can't get citizens with absolutely no physical disabilities to assume the responsibility of keeping the block on which they live free of cigarette butts and other litter - but here are a husband and wife who are blind wanting to be volunteers!

I talked several minutes with Buck about how we could coordinate our cleanup effort on their block. We decided that I would meet them at their home yesterday afternoon. Our plan was that they would use their white-canes to move along the sidewalk curb as they walked along the gutter. I was to be the "spotter" by staying in front of them and telling them when they reached a piece of litter.

We met at the designated time, and I let them "feel" the litter-stick to become familiar with the way it picks up litter. I walked with them out to the sidewalk and, then, into the 13th Avenue gutter.

In short, these two blind citizens cleaned up the half-block in front of their residence, with me as the "spotter" and the "litter-bag-holder". We made a great team, and their block is now minus several glass and plastic bottles, paper-litter and other assorted types of litter, which, obviously, were thrown there by people who don't care about the appearance of our city.

I solute Mr. and Mrs. Buck Saunders. They are good citizens, and I am honored to know them. Here is hoping that their wonderful demonstration of good citizenship is an inspiration to others, just as it was to me. Presently our group has over 1000-volunteers, city-wide, that have adopted just their own block. My hat is, also, off to each of them. Together, we will accomplish anything we can imagine.

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(Check out the Herald-Dispatch story by clicking here.)