If you drive on US 60 near Gold Canyon, you’ll likely notice an Adopt a Highway sign. It honors veterans Joe Diaz and Manuel Zaragoza along with Manuel’s wife, Sarah.

Bea Sanchez tells us Adopt a Highway offers her family a special way of remembering three family members who have passed away. Manuel and Sarah Zaragoza are Bea’s parents, while Joe Diaz was Bea’s son-in-law.

According to Bea Sanchez, “The Adopt-a-Highway program is amazing. It not only gives us the unique opportunity to honor our loved ones, we are also able to contribute to the beauty of our great state of Arizona.”

Bea shared more about those honored on US 60 at milepost 200. She tells us her father, Manuel, was a World War II veteran who loved country music and "M*A*S*H." Despite his education ending at seventh grade, he was a self-taught master of many trades. Sarah Zaragoza, Bea’s mother, loved Mexican music, dancing and holidays.

Bea remembers Joe as a man who lit up any room he entered and lived life to the fullest. Joe Diaz, who was also a veteran, died at the age of 54.

If you’d like to pay tribute to a loved one through Adopt a Highway, you can visit the Adopt a Highway website to learn more about the program.

ADOT Adopt a Highway volunteer groups raked-in – literally – hundreds of bags of trash from highways across Arizona this past Saturday, Sept. 21, which marked National CleanUp Day. The count currently stands at 107 bags collected, and reports are still rolling in.

With a colleague, I had the pleasure of traveling to thank several of the groups that turned out to help keep Arizona grand, joining people united for the purpose of reducing litter in their communities all over.

Increased awareness of the Adopt a Highway program brought participation from some groups for the first time on National CleanUp Day, and others joined-in again this, our second year. 

These groups deserve special acknowledgement for responding to our call to
action:

• Don and Imogene Bennett, Family & Friends of Jason Bennett,” Phoenix
• Patricia Woolsey, “Larry Woolsey Forever,” Star Valley
• Cindy Silliman, “Maranatha Bible Church," Show Low
• Linda Philbrook, “Sasquatch Marc Philbrook We Love You,” Show Low
• Michel and Chris Fluhr, “Clint Fluhr Forever In Our Hearts,” Tonto Village
• Terri Miller, “In Memory Of Mike Hancock,” Happy Jack
• Marilya Veteto Reese, “NAU German Club,” Flagstaff
• Eddie and Sharon Gillam, “St. Luke’s Episcopal Church,” Chino Valley
• Tora Moody, “St. John’s Episcopal Church,” Williams
• Steve Bowles, “Brian R. Bowles,” Sunflower

Thank you to those of you who stopped to warmly welcome us to your miles. We appreciated your smiles and the positive impact you are making on your community and the state of Arizona. 

With National CleanUp Day approaching on Sept. 21, I want to express my thanks to our volunteers and sponsors who consistently pick up trash along our state highways. These volunteers have cleaned up 1,672 miles of Arizona highways. You are indeed making a difference in keeping our roads litter-free.

National Clean Up Day is a day set aside for individuals and organizations to work together in reducing litter in their communities.

According to the statistics we keep for our Adopt A Highway program, we have permitted 953 groups and 9,868 individual volunteers who have been responsible for collecting 13,828 bags of trash. We also have calculated the number of volunteer labor hours which translates to $500,000 in volunteer labor value savings. Taxpayers have certainly benefited from our Adopt A Highway program.

Our sponsor program is designed to have civic-minded sponsors work with businesses that contract with maintenance providers to cleanup roadside litter throughout the state. The majority of our sponsors are located in the Central District which is the Phoenix Metropolitan area. For 2018, the sponsors collected 89,896 bags of trash; if weighed, the total weight would be 1,230,676 pounds of trash.  We saw an increase of 9,454 bags of trash and 129,425 pounds of trash from 2017 in the area.

Not all highway segments have been adopted. We have an interactive map showing which Adopt A Highway segments are waiting for volunteers. Visit azdot.gov/AdoptaHighway to learn more about our program and become a volunteer.

I encourage everyone to do their part in keeping Arizona roads litter free.  Please think twice before you decide to throw away a plastic soda bottle, paper sack, or cigarette butt out of a car window. Besides making our roads look dirty, these items can clog our drainage systems and create problems during rain storms.

Thank you trash slayers! I appreciate the work you do in fulfilling our motto:  Arizona, Keep It Grand!

Calling all Adopt a Highway volunteers!

National CleanUp Day is coming up on Saturday, Sept. 21. This is a day set aside for individuals and organizations to unite for the purpose of reducing litter in their communities in every part of the world.

Last year, Adopt a Highway groups turned out around the state to clean up their adopted highway segments. All together these teams succeeded in a collecting more than 200 bags of litter from Arizona's highways.

We're encouraging ADOT Adopt a Highway volunteer groups to participate in National CleanUp Day by contacting their ADOT district office to schedule to be out on the 21st. Participating groups must report their litter within three days so that litter collection results may be shared with volunteers.

The Adopt a Highway team plans to visit as many volunteer groups around the state as logistics allow. If you would like to participate, please send the following information to [email protected] and we will do our best to visit you!

Group Contact Name/phone: 
Sign Name:
Mileposts:
Cleanup (start time):
Cleanup (end time):

All respondents will receive notification from me prior to National CleanUp Day.

We encourage you to send us your group photos for possible use in in an upcoming ADOT blog, and we'd love to see and share your cleanup photos on social media. Please use the hashtag #NationalCleanUpDay and tag your photos with @ArizonaDOT. 

Thank you for considering National Clean UpDay as an opportunity to help reduce litter along our highways.

Arizona, Keep It Grand!

When you contact someone to talk about picking up litter, you don’t expect to hear a love story. However, after talking to a few families who have adopted an Arizona highway, you come to realize it’s because of love. It’s love for the person whose name is on the Adopt a Highway sign that drives families to go out and pick up discarded cigarette butts and soda cans along the highway. Don’t get me wrong, each family also wants to maintain the beauty of the state, but they’re committed because they want to honor their loved one.

That was the case when I spoke to Neva Coester on a hot summer day. The love for her husband, David, was evident as her voice cracked when she talked about him.

Neva and David Coester are from Mesa and began visiting the Alpine area in the 1980s. Eventually they started to build a cabin in Alpine. Unfortunately, David passed away before the cabin was finished. While Neva goes back to the cabin each year without David, she still finds a way to remember him.

For the past 15 years, Neva and 15 to 20 friends and family gather each summer to clean David’s mile of highway on US 180.

When I asked Neva what David would have thought of people cleaning up the highway in his name, she responded, “He would have loved it. He loved the area and having friends come up.”

She added, “David was the type of guy everyone loved to be around. Everyone remembers David and what a helpful person he was.”

Even though our conversation brought tears to her eyes, Neva wanted to talk about David and why she adopted a highway in his name. She wanted to encourage others to also consider adopting.

“It’s a great chance to get together with friends. You always say you’re going to get together. Once you have a reason or purpose, you do it,” Neva said.

The above photo is of the group’s most recent pickup on July 27. If you happened to be driving past milepost 428 on US 180 that day, you likely spotted Neva and her closest friends and family honoring David through their volunteer work with Adopt a Highway.

If you’re interested in adopting a highway, learn more at the Adopt a Highway website.

Committing to anything for 37 years is a long time. When it’s to pick up trash, some might not even consider it. That’s not the case for two Adopt a Highway volunteers who have been picking up litter along a stretch of State Route 273 near Sunrise Lake since 1982. 

Stephen and Nancy Combs adopted their first segment of highway to honor their son, Kevin. They later adopted another section to remember Stephen’s parents, Lola and Noy “Bushy” Combs. Stephen says, “Each sign reminds us of the good times and stories of a time gone by. Every now and then we hear from someone who has passed by Kevin’s sign, and it is nice to know he’s not forgotten.” 

The Combs live near Gold Canyon but have always spent time in the White Mountains. Stephen tells us Bushy Combs helped build many of the roads on the Rim in the 1960s. Stephen now shares his love the White Mountains by taking his grandkids up north to go fishing. He says adopting a highway is “a great excuse to get out of the heat and enjoy the cool temperatures up north.” 

Over the past 37 years, three generations of the Combs family have honored their deceased family members through the Adopt a Highway program. Signing up to adopt a highway only requires a two-year commitment, but we can only imagine Kevin, Lola and Bushy Combs would be proud of the many years their family has been working to keep the White Mountains beautiful.

This story began as a back-to-school message to kids of all ages about the negative effects of littering. I was struggling for a catchy new angle when the phone rang.

Richard Perez, permit supervisor for ADOT's Northwest District, called to notify me that the Glendale Union High School District Transportation Department had requested a one-time litter clean-up along 2 miles of State Route 89A, known to locals in Dewey as Fain Road.

Last week I met up with the group as they prepared for an ADOT safety briefing. Hilma Gustafson, the district's transportation supervisor, and Timothy Tillman, a transportation dispatcher, were busy outfitting safety vests and preparing for the cleanup.

It is not often one can say this literally, but not far behind were busloads of volunteers, two of them, 40-strong each, pouring into the parking lot to join the event. When I asked Tim why he choose Adopt a Highway, he told me that scheduling volunteer events for large groups can be challenging. This was a way to keep the group together rather than dividing them up among different service projects.   

Hilma, a 27-year transportation employee with the district, brings the department together annually before the school year starts for training. A few years ago she added volunteering to the program. That's taken them to food banks, thrift stores and, now, the side of a state highway. 

According to Tim, “Volunteering as a group, large or small, is a way to give back to the community. It also opens the volunteer door to some who may have never done volunteering, and it improves the beauty of our great state.”

Well kids, the back-to-school message became more about teamwork and community pride. Not the direction I intended this post to go, but this is a catchy, maybe-not-so-new angle: Making a difference starts with each one of us.

I had a chance to chat with a few of the 40 volunteers as they walked along filling their trash bags. Each had a smile to share and did not seem to mind a rather warm northern Arizona morning. What I learned is that teamwork is second nature to this transportation department. Dispatchers, bus drivers, supervisors and trainers all work toward the common goal of safely delivering students.

Their efforts netted 51 full litter bags dotting SR 89A, earning them a well-deserved "A-plus" for the team. Thank you to the Glendale Union High School District Transportation Department for spending part of your day with the Adopt a Highway Volunteer program. Your service to the community reflects in our new program motto: Arizona, Keep it Grand.

Do you have team spirit? Then please visit the ADOT website to learn more about our Adopt a Highway program. An interactive map will show you which highway segments are available to adopt. 

Many of us think of escaping to the White Mountains at this time of year, but not everyone thinks about getting out of town to pick up trash along a highway. 

Fortunately for those who enjoy trips to Arizona's high country, there are volunteers helping keep highways clean when they're getting away from it all. Two of those volunteers recently shared their love for the mountains and for loved ones they honor through ADOT's Adopt a Highway volunteer program. 

Deb Givler adopted a highway segment more than 15 years ago after her husband, Chris, passed away. Chris used to bring Deb to the White Mountains where they dreamed of having a cabin. They later brought their two sons to the White Mountains. As Deb tells us, “It’s a good place to bring boys.” 

After Chris died, Deb wanted to honor him and remembered he would always pick up trash on their fishing trips. Deb initially adopted a highway near Overgaard. Now she picks up litter along State Route 260 near McNary. It’s less than 10 miles from her cabin but nearly 200 miles from her home in Phoenix. Deb used to do the cleanups with her sons, but now that they’re in college she often does it by herself. She says it gives her time to think about and remember Chris. 

Deb believes it’s up to all of us to take care of the area and we shouldn’t expect someone else to do it. “A lot of people have cabins up in the mountains, why not do something to honor your family?” she says. 

Another Adopt a Highway volunteer, Michael Stafford, says cleaning up a highway in the mountains is a good way to spend some time alone and get peace of mind. 

Michael used to travel from his home in Scottsdale to volunteer with his significant other, Charlene Sipe. Around 2001, Charlene adopted a mile along US 191 north of her Nutrioso cabin to honor her late husband, Dennis, and his best friend. Their Adopt a Highway sign reads “In memory of two good old boys.” 

Before Charlene passed away in early July, Michael would help Charlene and her son, James, pick up trash along their mile in front of the Sipe White Mountain Wildlife Area. Now that Charlene is gone, Michael plans to continue the cleanups as a way to honor Charlene. 

If you would like to keep the area around your Arizona cabin clean or want a way to remember and honor a loved one, please visit to the Adopt a Highway website to pick out your mile.

By Mary Currie / ADOT Adopt a Highway

Twenty-six years ago Caroline Dale, senior homesite agent for the Chinle Navajo Land Department, became inspired by a promotion for an annual event celebrating support of the environment and harmony with nature.

Dale’s inspiration turned to action when she adopted a stretch of US Route 191 near her office. Her mission: Keep Arizona clean. Between three and seven department staff members joined Dale’s continuing effort to clean up trash along this stretch in Chinle.

Chinle is located in northeastern Apache County on the Navajo Nation. The name Chinle in Navajo means “flowing out” and is a reference to where water flows out of picturesque Canyon de Chelly nearby.

On June 5, ADOT’s Northeast District staff members and program representatives gathered in Holbrook to recognize Dale for her volunteer service with ADOT. By stepping forward to reduce litter in her community more than two decades ago, Dale and her team left an imprint in the form of a positive impression to residents, travelers and visitors to the area.

That's Dale second from the right in the photo above, joined by, from left to right, Matt Moul, district engineer for ADOT's Northeast District; yours truly; and Tim Tait, ADOT communications director.

We hope you too will be inspired by both Dale's awareness of nature and her mission to reduce litter in Arizona. If you are interested in forming your own group of volunteers learn more about the Adopt a Highway Volunteer program and check out an interactive map to see available locations ready for adoption throughout the state.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The author oversees ADOT Adopt a Highway programs.

By Caroline Carpenter / ADOT Communications

With Father’s Day around the corner, many are searching for that perfect gift, while some are remembering a father who has passed away. If you’re looking for a unique way to honor a family member and do something for your community, adopting a highway might be right for you.

For the past 17 years the Schlecht family has been cleaning up a stretch of State Route 72 in La Paz County. They began participating in ADOT's Adopt a Highway program in 2002 after Tom, the youngest of 10, passed away from cancer. When their parents, Don and Phyllis Schlecht, died, the sign dedication was changed to “Dad, Mom & Brother Tom.”

The Schlecht family grew up together in North Dakota. Now they gather several times each year to pick up litter along their 2-mile segment south of Parker, near the State Route 95 junction. The photo above shows the five Schlecht brothers next to their family's Adopt a Highway sign. The family tells us the process has evolved over the years and often includes more than just immediate family members. Friends and former classmates from North Dakota have joined in.

Pat Schlecht says their parents taught them about the value of hard work and to care about the environment. According to Pat, “I know that Mom, Dad and Tom would be proud that we continue to gather and share with each other memories and stories from home as we work alongside each other. More people should get involved in this process, as it is easy to do, does not require much expenditure and the return is many fold.”

Whether you’re looking to remember a cherished family member or want to honor a veteran who has served our country, adopting a highway in the name of your loved one can be a way to remember them and improve your community. There are currently more than 400 Adopt a Highway memorial segments across the state. Visit the ADOT website to learn more about the Adopt a Highway program. An interactive map will show you which highway segments are available to adopt.