Athol community seeks volunteers for annual Green Clean event

ATHOL – Organizers for the annual Green Clean Athol community cleanup are hoping more volunteers will join the event and pick up refuse from more Athol streets than in years past.

The event will be held from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, April 18, the weekend before the annual Earth Day commemoration, which will be held April 22. Green Clean Athol was started by Heidi Strickland and Bonnie Benjamin, but they are scaling back their involvement to make room for a new group of leaders – Kim LaFleur, Johanna Lawlor-Moore and Heather Heath, who are the new organizers for the cleanup.

LaFleur explained, “I’m ‘three years young’ into Athol, but I was very involved in Fitchburg. I wanted to move to a smaller town and I wanted to see if they have the same kind of spirit, which they do, and so I decided to join.”

LaFleur added she is not averse to a bit of cleanup duty.

“When I’m at Market Basked or in any parking lot, I always pick up trash, so it’s just in me,” she said. “I try to do my part locally.”

Lawlor-Moore said she regularly runs or walks parts of Athol.

“I can go for a walk from my house in either direction, and I can fill up bags with nips and Bud Light cans and Dunkin Donuts cups,” she said.

Lawlor-Moore said she has done some volunteering for recent Green Clean Athol events, adding that Benjamin got her involved a few years ago.

“I got involved in planning for the first time last year,” said Heath, “but I participated with my husband and our kids for a couple of years before that. I run pretty much every day on Petersham Road, and the trash is kind of relentless. It’s important to me to have the kids get involved.”

Heath said organizers are hoping early notice of the event will spur more people to volunteer and get more of the community cleared of trash.

“If there’s a road in town or you live in an area that’s high-need and you can’t help to clean up that area, let us know and we’ll try to target it on the day of the event,” Heath said adding that around 50 people have signed up so far.

Each year, volunteers either drop off bags of trash at the Athol transfer station or bring bags back to the Green Clean Athol “headquarters.” From there they are taken to the transfer station in a truck manned by volunteers from the Public Works Department. Last year, Green Clean Athol collected two tons of trash, 700 pounds of metal, 270 pounds of demolition materials, six needles, one mattress, 32 tires, one microwave, one treadmill and four toilets.

This year the central location for Green Clean Athol will be set up behind Athol Public Library, 568 Main St. In previous years, the signup table, maps, refreshments, bags, gloves and T-shirts for volunteers were located near the Athol Senior Center at Lord Pond Plaza, but because of ongoing construction at the shopping center, the headquarters had to be relocated.

Sponsors of this year’s event include Shoe Fly Graphics, Athol-Orange Rotary, Keppler Investment, Dodd Contracting, Streamline Classics, Whipps Incorporated, and Friends of the Athol Public Library.

Additional sponsors would be welcome, said Lawlor-Moore, to help cover expenses, including trash bags, banners, gasoline reimbursement for needle pick-up, and other items. Potential sponsors can contact greencleanatholma@gmail.com. Snacks and hot chocolate will be provided by Athol Congregational Church.

Anyone interested in volunteering is encouraged to go to the Green Clean Athol Facebook page at https://tinyurl.com/bdf45k6y.