Village Pride annual fall roadside cleanup approaches

Village Pride is hosting their annual roadside cleanup Oct. 14 beginning at 9 a.m. on the parking lot of King Rhodes and Associates.

According to Jonathan Rhodes, the cleanup is not to be confused with the City of Cherokee Village’s curbside pickup.

“People get this confused with the curbside pickup the city does every year where you put things out by the curb and the city picks it up. This is not that. We always get calls about that. This Saturday will be volunteers picking up trash off the sides of the roads and we appreciate anybody who has time on Saturday,” Rhodes said. 

The Village Pride cleanup is a long-standing tradition and is carried out by throngs of volunteers each year.

“This is the opportunity for our volunteers throughout the community to come out and pick up litter off the side of the road. This is all the stuff that flies out of the bed of people’s trucks or that people throw out on the side of the road,” Rhodes said. “We’ve got a great group of volunteers who throughout the year, whether they’re out cleaning up working on Tohi Trail out by the emergency room, Adahi Trail or the community garden down here by Pappose Park, or the spring or fall roadside pickup, that group of volunteers is always ready and willing to do something. It’s a great group of volunteers.”

Rhodes said volunteers will meet at 9 a.m. and be treated to coffee and doughnuts before heading out for the cleanup.

“Anyone who would like to volunteer can come to the King Rhodes parking lot, we start at nine with coffee and donuts and then we’ll give them trash bags and pickers and then people can go out to designated areas or if they have an area, they want to pick up in they can do that,” Rhodes said. “When they’re finished, they can come back and put the trash here in a dumpster and then we will do hamburgers and hotdogs with our volunteers at lunchtime. We’re looking forward to a nice day. It will be a good event.”