Make It Shine!

Tim Walker
AMR Reporter

Pocahontas County Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Cara Rose is excited about a new roadside clean-up program kicking off in the county, and individuals and organizations can get involved.

Rose, along with Charlie Sheets and groups and organizations around the county are coordinating the project.

“It is the Department of Environmental Protection’s ‘Make it Shine!’ campaign.” Rose said. “It is designed to clean up our roadsides. Over the course of the last couple of years, litter has really become an eyesore, particularly along our highways.”

“The plan is to initiate this road clean-up on Earth Day, which is April 22, and carry it through May 8, which includes National Travel and Tourism Week. The campaign that I am promoting through the Convention and Visitors Bureau is ‘A Hundred Miles and a Hundred Dollars Per Mile.’ So, we are asking that local groups, organizations, Adopt-a-Highway groups and businesses support this cam- paign by committing to cleaning up at least one mile of highway, and up to ten miles. And ultimately with the goal to get to one-hundred miles having been cleaned up in the county.”

Interested groups and organizations should contact the CVB, 304-799-4636, and register to be a part of the project.

“We’ll have a form for them to fill out, and once they’ve completed the clean-up on a designated road – whether it’s one mile or up to ten miles – they will report back that it has been done, and we will contribute a hundred dollars per mile to the group or organization,” Rose explained.

“Ultimately, it will be ten thousand dollars going back to our community for these road clean-ups,” Rose said. “We will coordinate supplies that you need, as well as vests and road signs.”

We live in Pocahontas County for a reason, Rose said.

“It is a beautiful place. Sometimes we think that it’s somebody else’s responsibility to pick up litter. But there really is no specific person or group or business or entity that is responsible, so that means it becomes our responsibility.

“I really encourage everyone to participate in this program.

“Call me, and get registered. I will be happy to give you all the information and the details.”