By Mary J. Currie / ADOT Communications

It’s a pretty good day when you can be part of something bigger than yourself and something that leaves a positive mark. That is exactly what some employees with our Northwest District office in Prescott did recently by thanking a lovely couple from Kirkland Junction for their volunteer service.

Walt and Nancy Einsele dedicated 14 years of service to their community and ADOT as Adopt a Highway volunteers. They made a great team, and their efforts made a big difference in litter reduction at milepost 295 and the surrounding area on State Route 89 near Wilhoit.

If Walt had his choice, he would still be out there cleaning, but for health reasons he had to retire his permit with the district.

We welcome volunteers who would like to fill Walt and Nancy’s shoes, and the community would welcome you too.

For more information about the Adopt a Highway volunteer program in all parts of Arizona, please contact us using the phone numbers on the Adopt a Highway District map. You can learn more about the program at azdot.gov/AdoptAHighway.

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

By Mary J. Currie / ADOT Communications

Adopt a Highway Volunteer groups from around the state answered the invitation to participate in National CleanUp Day recently.

Bag collections so far have exceeded 192, and we expect that number to grow as more groups submit their litter activity reports over the following weeks. That morning, ADOT

Communications Director Tim Tait (driver and photographer) and I (volunteer-lookout and navigator) headed out from Phoenix on Interstate 17. We caught up with several volunteer groups in action near Chino Valley, Dewey and Heber/Overgaard.

It was our pleasure to personally thank each group for volunteering and answering the call to participate. We appreciated the warm welcome for our quick drop in and photo op! The photo at right shows me thanking Edward Gillum of St. Luke's Episcopal Church volunteering along State Route 89 in Chino Valley.

As we made our loop through Holbrook, Flagstaff and back to Phoenix, we saw quite a few ADOT signature sky-blue bags dotting the highways – the telltale sign of a successful day.

Volunteers in Wickenburg, Apache Junction, Oro Valley, Sierra Vista, Coolidge and Willcox also came out in force to show their community pride.

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

• Sharon Lake, Sierra Vista Sunrise Rotary and Buena Vista High School Interact
• Doug Harris, Ponderosa Lions Club
• Kathy Berman, Bike Prescott
• Edward Gillum, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
• Kevin Mrotek, The Prescott Fun Activities Group
• William Valenta, Wickenburg Ranch Cyclists
• Michel and Chris Fluhr, Clint Fluhr Forever in our Hearts
• Monia Valencia, In Loving Memory of Denise Padilla
• Skyler Hardy, Hilton El Conquistador Hotel
• Deborah Greco, In Memory of Jack Rogers Adventurer
• Linda Philbrook, SasquatchMarc Philbrook We Love You
• Albert Koester, The Church at Sunsites
• Becky Smith, In Memory of Danielle L. Wolf
• Linda Serna, Loving Memory for Adelina and Mandy Martinez 

Thank you all for making a positive impact to your community and the state of Arizona on National CleanUp Day. We appreciate that you have chosen to participate in ADOT’s Adopt a Highway Volunteer program.

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

By Mary J Currie / ADOT Communications

The term drop-in kitchen sink may sound familiar if you are into home remodeling. If you belong to the Adopt a Highway group Prescott Litter Lifters, a household item or appliance dropping into the right of way is, well, expected. You just never know what trash-du-jour awaits along the roadway.

This all started when I received an appreciative response from Farrish Sharon for posting a Secure Your Load article in the Adopt a Highway Summer Newsletter. Attached was the photo above showing a volunteer hefting a kitchen sink. She thanked me for reminding people to cover their loads and was not a bit surprised to hear that roadside debris causes 51,000 crashes in the U.S. annually.

Prescott Litter Lifters’ roots date back to 1981. Farrish and co-manager Nancy Piehl are the current leaders of 30 volunteers. It is not uncommon to meet a 10-year or even 20-year participants in this group. One dedicated volunteer recently retired at age 91. A few of the members have engineered creative and more efficient ways to pick up litter over the years, like inventing custom pick-up sticks adjusted to height, with grabbers at the end made of recycled bottle caps. And trash bag holders involving hoops that prevent the wind from closing the bag as you are filling it up. Genius, I say.

Custom tools for picking up litter

Retired from a 40-year nursing career, Farrish said the clean appearance of Prescott was one reason she and her husband moved to the area. They like seeing their city get clean and have shown their pride through Litter Lifters for more than five years. Nancy and her husband were involved in an adopt-a-street group in Phoenix. Shortly after moving to Prescott they saw an ad in The Daily Courier seeking volunteers to join the Prescott Litter Lifters. That was 10 years ago. “We’ve met the nicest people here who care about the environment!” she says.

The tremendous leadership shown by this dynamic duo really shone through during my conversation with Farrish. Two days a week on alternating days, she and Nancy are either leading a group or participating as volunteers. The teams lift litter for one-hour – max. And pleading for more time to continue is not approved. What?

Farrish recalled one particular outing where the group came upon a badly trashed area near a bridge. The end of the hour was nearing and she declined to allow the group to go forward, explaining that what is left behind today will be there next time. She cares for these volunteers and realizes there is no end to the litter. While it may seem like a good idea at the time, extra hours on the roadside may create safety issues, exhaustion and burnout. She wants them to return, so it is important to focus on the achievements of the day and share the bag count with them. The volunteers want to know how much trash they have removed from the roadside in order to measure their accomplishments.

What is even more impressive about Farrish and Nancy is the level of organization they bring to the group. Litter bag counts and volunteer hours are calculated, and volunteers are provided a monthly schedule revealing the dates, locations and meeting areas. These two make it look easy. What’s more is they will gladly mentor those interested in organizing their own groups.

It is not uncommon for this team to meet after each event for coffee at a local diner, Farrish says. Someone usually runs ahead to grab seats. What better way to connect with the volunteers, share the morning’s litter collection totals and talk about everything, including the kitchen sink.

Prescott Litter Lifters collects litter over 60 miles of city, county and state roadway around Prescott in 27 locations each week of the year. Volunteers are always welcome. For more information, visit http://prescottlitterlift.wixsite.com/prescottlitterlifter.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The author oversees ADOT's Adopt a Highway volunteer program.

By Mary J. Currie /ADOT Communications

Volunteer coordinators wear many hats. As motivator – Hey, let’s do this! – to safety promoter and event closer, which requires reporting your litter collection totals.

Reporting the number of trash bags you collect each year within your mileposts is valuable data that we count on from you to help us measure the success of the Adopt a Highway Volunteer Program each year.

With that in mind, we have added the Adopt a Highway Volunteer program as a new feature on the ADOT mobile site homepage. It joins the lineup of other ADOT sites frequently visited by customers: MVD Services, News, Traffic Information and Contacts. You can also choose to visit our full site through a link on the mobile site homepage.

ADOT Mobile

Now, the information that you access frequently is available at your fingertips. While this is not an app, you can save the URL to your home page for easy access on a smartphone.

Check out these three quick categories: Contact Information, Report your Litter and Safety Briefing.

Contact information – Touch to contact an ADOT district permit technician in your area.

Report your Litter – Instant access to the form required to report your litter collection totals. Enter your permit number, report your litter, click Submit. Done!

Safety Briefing – Quick access to the ADOT Safety Video and Safety Briefing is located here for volunteers to review prior to each cleanup event.

Bottom line, your time is valuable. We hope this new feature hits the mark to help you access needed information quickly and report the positive impact you make by reducing litter on Arizona’s highways.

Try the new features by going to azdot.gov/mobile on your mobile device.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The author oversees ADOT's Adopt a Highway volunteer program.

By Laurie Merrill / ADOT Communications

Let me start by admitting right up front that I am not the type who loves to scrub, vacuum, mop or polish.

I do these things not because I want to, but because I have to if I want a clean home.

But this past Saturday, I volunteered to join ADOT Communications colleagues to do that which I typically dread: clean.

As part of ADOT’s Adopt a Highway program, our team has adopted a mile of US 60 that spans mileposts 130-131 in the Wittman area.

I volunteered to pick up trash during my time off not because I want to, but because I have to if I want a clean home.

You see, Arizona’s roadways are kind of like my home away from home. They’re the place I go when I leave my house and again when I leave work. It’s how I visit friends and family, run errands, explore Arizona and go anywhere at all.

Word Sayers and Trash Slayers

So donning a safety vest and picking up a blue trash bag and a grabber stick, I spent some quality time with work friends adding quality to “our” piece of highway by making it cleaner.

Soon you’ll be able to recognize ADOT’s mile because of a road sign referring to both our roles as communicators and debris removers:

Speaking of “our” piece of highway, another reason I got involved in ADOT’s Adopt a Highway program is that I was influenced by the hysterically funny 150^th episode of Seinfeld called “The Pothole.”

For the uninitiated, this is the episode when Kramer adopts mile 114 of a New York City-area highway and attempts to make “his” section more luxurious by widening the lanes, with hilarious results (you can see highlight at right).

“Ah, you know how in planes they got first class? More legroom, better ride? Well, I’m bringing that concept to mile 114,” Kramer says.

Our group didn’t repaint any lane lines, but we picked up a bunch of trash. In our way, we made US 60 milepost 130-131 more luxurious.

ADOT’s Adopt a Highway Volunteer Program already has more than 800 volunteer groups and almost 11,000 individual volunteers who clean up litter along Arizona’s roadways.

Find out more about how to apply for a volunteer permit with the Adopt a Highway Volunteer Program at azdot.gov/AdoptaHighway.

By Dani Weber / ADOT Communications

Arizona is famous for its beautiful, sprawling deserts and breathtaking vistas. To help keep it that way, volunteers all across the state donate their time and energy to picking up litter and debris along the side of the highway. And you can too!

State DOTs everywhere run their own Adopt a Highway programs, and ADOT is no exception. It allows individuals and even companies and corporations to take responsibility for keeping roads not only beautiful, but also clear of debris that can become dangerous to motorists and pedestrians alike. And the new overseer of the Adopt a Highway Program, Communications Program Manager Mary Currie, is looking to recruit more volunteers – from ADOT.

ADOT’s Adopt a Highway Volunteer Program already has more than 800 volunteer groups, and almost 11,000 individual volunteers, who clean up litter along Arizona’s roadways. Currie wants to add to those numbers with volunteers who work for ADOT too.

“I want to be part of it,” Currie said, referring to the Adopt a Highway Volunteer Program. “When I talk to the public about opportunities to volunteer, I want to be able to share what I know firsthand as a volunteer in the program.”

Currie considers this effort to be good stewardship for the agency. “If we want the public involved in taking care of roads, let’s lead by example,” Currie said. “I invite those thinking about adoption to come out and ‘kick the tires’ with us during a scheduled cleanup event on our segment of US 60.”

“We’re hoping to gain interest in the program and appreciation for the community and what our volunteers are getting out there and doing for us,” she said. “It’s about teamwork and community pride.”

ADOT Communications has already gotten on board with Currie’s plan and is scheduled to clean up a stretch of U.S. Route 60 – a total of four miles – on June 2, a Saturday.

Find out more about how to apply for a volunteer permit with the Adopt a Highway Volunteer Program by going to azdot.gov/AdoptaHighway.

By Mary J. Currie / ADOT Communications

Evelyn Oneil, a Marine mom and a community servant to the core, is the volunteer behind a State Route 79 Adopt a Highway sign north of Florence reading:

I had the pleasure of speaking with Evie when she contacted me to learn whether her new Adopt a Highway sign would be installed by April 1, in time to honor her late son’s birthday.

Quick action taken by Jeffrey Minefee and Susie Puzas, permits supervisors in ADOT’s Southeast District, made this happen. I was intrigued by this mom’s dedication to her son’s memory and wanted to learn why she was motivated to honor him at this milepost, and this stretch of Arizona desert.

Evie, as she is fondly known, granted me an interview. She insisted that she did not have a unique story, but I knew it would mean so much to share it with others.

She told me that Brodie loved the environment and the outdoors. He was born in Seymour, Wisconsin, served during 9/11, and his specialty was fire and rescue. He quickly rose to the rank of sergeant and served four years stationed at Quantico, Virginia.

Brodie Jay Denow

Evelyn recalled details Brodie shared about a rescue mission in which he saved a pilot whose plane lost its brakes and ended up in a pond at the end of the runway. Brodie rushed into action, swimming out to save him. “He wasn’t one to sit on the sidelines,” she said.

Evelyn is a full time RVer, wintering near Florence from October to May and spending summers in east Glacier National Park in Montana. She spent time cleaning bathrooms in that park and found herself expanding her love of community service by picking up litter along the roadways, finding a lot of cigarette butts and a few interesting items along the way.

Late last year, Evelyn noticed an Adopt a Highway sign while driving along SR 79. As she thought about it and noticed mile markers 144 and 145, it made sense to her what she needed to do next. The numbers correlated with Brodie’s birthday, 4/1, and her birth year, '54, while Route 79 correlated with the year she married Brodie’s dad. She went to the local ADOT office, where she learned that mileposts 144-145 were available for adoption.

Evelyn gathered friends to pick up litter along this stretch. She said once they start volunteering it’s almost contagious and they realize how much they enjoy doing it. She wishes we could encourage more people to get out and help keep our highways clean.

If you are out driving in Pinal County, just south of Florence Junction, please take a moment to salute a brave young Marine who was committed to serving his country, and the Marine mom who continues his legacy by keeping Arizona, and wherever she may travel, litter-free.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The author oversees ADOT's Adopt a Highway volunteer program.

By John Halikowski / ADOT Director

How many volunteers does it take to keep Arizona highways clean and beautiful? Approximately 800 volunteers this past year kept 1,500 miles of highway clean, collected 14,000 bags of trash — that’s a lot of trash — and saved Arizona taxpayers $500,000 in clean-up costs. I want to thank these dedicated volunteers who spent their time keeping our highways clear of litter.

At ADOT, we recently recognized these volunteers with special certificates and letters of appreciation as part of National Volunteer Week.

It’s too bad that we need volunteers to pick up trash on our roadways. We need to change the culture that littering isn’t tolerated.

With the monsoon season approaching, it is especially important that we remind everyone that trash is a big problem in clogging our drainage system. We need our pump stations to work efficiently to remove water from the freeways in order to avoid road closures. Yes, that bag of fast-food wrappers you toss from your window on the highway, could contribute to roadway flooding.

We have an Adopt-A-Highway program where roadways can be sponsored and “adopted” by individuals, corporations, schools, etc. with the promise of keeping these roadways clean and beautiful. Please visit our Adopt-A-Highway website if you are interested in becoming a volunteer or wish to sponsor/adopt a specific segment of roadway in the state. Unfortunately, we are always in need of more help.

Let’s all do our part to keep our Arizona highways clean and beautiful. The less I have to talk about trash, the better.

By Mary J. Currie / ADOT Communications

National Volunteer Week has been observed throughout the United States and the world for over 20 years. And ADOT is marking it by sending certificates of appreciation to the 800-plus groups that are part of our Adopt a Highway volunteer program.

These volunteers cleaned up nearly 1,500 miles along highways and collected 14,000 bags of litter last year, making Arizona more beautiful for all of us as well as for those visiting our state.

This is just one of the ways we'll be recognizing these volunteers for their selfless and much-appreciated efforts around the state.

Thanks to each and every one of you!

EDITOR'S NOTE: The author oversees ADOT's Adopt a Highway volunteer program.

By David Woodfill / ADOT Communications

Miles of highway cleaned: 1,500

Bags of trash collected: 14,000

Taxpayer dollars saved: 500,000

Knowing you've made Arizona more beautiful: Priceless.

Adopt a Highway volunteers are at the front lines in keeping Arizona's magnificent landscapes pristine. And as impressive as the aforementioned numbers are, we could use a little more help.

That's where you come in. Yes, you – the one reading this blog. ADOT and Adopt a Highway need your help as long as there are people who feel entitled to litter our beautiful roadways.

In the words of ADOT Director John Halikowski, “We have to continue changing the culture until everyone instinctively knows that littering is absolutely unacceptable."

Until then, more tireless and selfless volunteers are needed to continue attacking the problem of litter on Arizona's roadways.

There are two ways to chip in: Volunteering and sponsoring.

Groups can apply for two-year permits to adopt highway stretches at azdot.gov/AdoptAHighway. Highways are available throughout the state. There is no shortage of paved roadway that can use a little TLC.

Those volunteers get their own signs featuring the names of their organizations in exchange for at least three cleanups a year. ADOT will provide the reflective lime-green safety vests and trash bags, and we'll haul away the garbage.

Business owners can sponsor a highway and use ADOT-approved vendors to clean up. Those businesses can get their own signage with their company names and logos.

So, what are you waiting for? Join us and help keep Arizona beautiful!