It is easy to complain about everything wrong in our communities, but it was heartening to see Attala County residents rise up and put some elbow grease into making a difference for the Great American CleanUp this past weekend.
Every year, Kosciusko Mayor Jimmy Cockroft seeks volunteers to help members of the Mayor’s Youth Council clean up and beautify the city. Unfortunately, there are rarely many volunteers.
This year, however, Attala County resident Chip Hawkins started a facebook group, eventually drawing 125 area residents to the cause of cleaning trash along the highways from the city limit to the county line.
We owe these citizens an immense debt of gratitude for all the elbow grease they put in Saturday.
It was no minor undertaking - these people wound up filling some 2,500 trash bags with refuse less caring people had dumped from their vehicles. Various
groups accepted responsibility for cleaning long stretches of Highways 19, 12 and 35. Most spent five or more hours on the task Saturday.
Asked why they got involved, participants said they want to show respect for their community and their neighbors by helping clean things up.
Some participants are now talking about a quarterly effort to avoid having such a huge task next Great American CleanUp day, but we have a better idea:
Let’s not mess it up in the first place.
