by: Augustine McKenna
Do you ever feel like a plastic bag drifting through the wind, wanting to start again? According to the West Virginia Department of Transportation, the annual cost of litter removal nationwide is $115 million, and West Virginia spends about $1 million annually on it. If you ever feel like a plastic bag that is drifting through the wind, pick yourself up and start again. That is exactly what WVU Parkersburg’s Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) Chapter, Sigma Omega, did with their Adopt-A-Highway Cleanup on Saturday, Sept. 30.
Eleven volunteers came out to the college on the morning of Sept. 30 and picked up eleven bags full of trash. One bag even contained an entire discarded mailbox. Most of the volunteers were students who needed community service hours for WV Invests, a grant program that pays for the entirety of tuition for students who apply. However, some other students simply volunteered for the fun of it.
“It was a fun time talking to everybody, but it was just crazy to see how much trash people actually throw out down here,” said Anastasia Nicholas, a PTK member and Criminal Justice student. “I really enjoyed it, especially because I was in an environmental club when I was in high school, too. It felt good to give back to the community.”
PTK does their Adopt-A-Highway cleanup three times a year, once for each semester, and they’ve been doing it for an extremely long time. PTK advisors, Marie Butler and Andrew Walker said that the PTK cleanups happened years before they became a part of it..
The Adopt-A-Highway Program was established in the late 80s by the Division of Natural Resources to improve the quality of local environments by encouraging public involvement in taking care of highway litter. The program’s objective was to save taxpayers money by increasing public awareness and educating them on the consequences of unchecked littering. Adopt-A-Highway gives volunteers the opportunity to take charge of their environment and make a cleaner place to live in.
PTK is an invitation-only academic honor society. To be eligible, students must have a minimum 3.5 cumulative grade point average and completed at least 12 credit hours of associate degree work.
However, PTK’s Adopt-A-Highway cleanup events are always open to all members of the campus community. Anyone can take a few hours to give back and keep the campus environment clean. The Adopt-A-Highway cleanup events also fulfill community service hours for programs like WV Invests, ASCEND and the Elementary Education and Nursing programs.
“It was honestly eye-opening to see what trash doesn’t break down, and how people don’t care and just toss it on the side of the road,” said Riley Dunbar, a Cosmetology student. “I felt great about getting out here and cleaning up these roads.” For more information about PTK, contact advisors Marie Butler at mbutler1@wvup.edu or Andrew Walker at wwalker1@wvup.edu.
The Chronicle 