Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

May 3, 2007 issue


Boone Clean-Up Day Participation Highest Ever

High Country Press Wins Third Place in Unusual Litter Contest

Story by Kathleen McFadden

The largest turnout ever of community members and Adopt-A-Street/Stream organizations headed out on Saturday, April 21, to clean up the Town of Boone and packed 3,280 pounds—that’s 1.64 tons— of trash and debris into 254 garbage bags.

The town holds a most unusual litter contest on Clean-Up Day, inviting volunteers to bring in the weirdest thing they find on their routes. This year, High Country Press won third place in the contest for a sign reading “Traveling, Broke and Sockless” on one side and “Traveling Broke and Cold” on the other. High Country Press’s adopted street is Boone Heights Drive.

Winning first place were the Whitley and Miller families for finding a fishing pole, and the ASU Math Club took second place with an 8-track tape.

The town awards $100 to the first place finisher, $50 to second and $25 to third.

While the town always designates a specific Saturday clean-up day, the larger Spring Litter Sweep spans a two-week period that coincides with the statewide effort. During the two-week Spring Litter Sweep campaign, community members and Adopt-A-Street organizations collected an additional 481 pounds of garbage.

Taken together, Boone Clean-Up Day and the Spring Litter Sweep resulted in a collection of litter totaling approximately 3,761 pounds or 1.88 tons.

Marsha Story, the Town of Boone’s Adopt-A-Street/Stream Coordinator, extends a big thank you to everyone who participated, to local media for publicizing the event and to Wallace Propane and Domino’s Pizza for their donations.