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Adopt a Highway: Recognizing 'All the Way to the Border' volunteers

Adopt a Highway: Recognizing 'All the Way to the Border' volunteers

Adopt a Highway: Recognizing 'All the Way to the Border' volunteers

Adopt a Highway: Recognizing 'All the Way to the Border' volunteers

By Mary Currie / ADOT Communications
February 5, 2025
A group of students participate in an Adopt-a-Highway clean-up event along a rural highway.

A cheering crowd surrounded Melissa Owen during a safety briefing that preceded a cleanup of all 45 miles of State Route 286 between SR 86 and Sasabe Along with this ADOT representative, they celebrated Owen’s 10 years of organizing the annual “All the Way to the Border” litter pickup.

Participants signed in at Altar Valley Middle School on Saturday, Jan. 25, then picked up trash bags and headed for their assigned stretches of this scenic state highway. You can view the event photos and see the people who are inspired to help us keep Arizona grand in the ADOT Flickr album linked here. It’s my pleasure to introduce some of those featured in these photos.

Altar Valley Conservation Alliance representative Julia Guglielmo helped others find adopted areas on a special map drawn to highlight adopted and available segments along the entire 45 miles. 

Julia said, “Our mission is to preserve the Altar Valley for future generations, and that’s exactly what this event does. It helps the community to stay clean and safe, keeps our highways scenic so people can focus on the amazing wonders of the Altar Valley without being distracted by trash. 

I met up with Altar Valley Middle School Math Teacher Katie Nicholas cleaning along with a group of honors students across from the school. Katie told me this was the first of two cleanups scheduled this year on their adopted section. “I drive this highway every day to work. It is so important to keep this community clean and healthy and we’re teaching our kids to do the same,” Katie said. 

A few miles down the road I met Jeff White visiting from Oro Valley. “We want to give back to the community,” Jeff said, about volunteering in the Keep Oro Valley Beautiful Program and participating at mile 42 for “All the Way to the Border.”

The event drew 103 participants who filled 197 large trash bags. That’s about 2,700 pounds of debris. An ADOT maintenance crew gathered and disposed of a truckload of larger trash. ADOT thanks Melissa Owen of Rancho Sierra Vista de Sasabe/ Pozo Verde Wildlife Preserve for leadership and volunteer service. Thank you to all of the supporters, including Altar Valley Middle School, Altar Valley Conservation Alliance, Trico Electric Cooperative and Texas-based Park Smith Law.

If you’d like to learn more about adopting a highway, please visit azdot.gov/adoptahighway.

Adopt a Highway Volunteer Cleanup SR 286 2025

Adopt a Highway: Kick off 2025 with southern Arizona hospitality

Adopt a Highway: Kick off 2025 with southern Arizona hospitality

Adopt a Highway: Kick off 2025 with southern Arizona hospitality

Adopt a Highway: Kick off 2025 with southern Arizona hospitality

By Mary Currie / ADOT Communications
December 26, 2024
Two people on the shoulder of a rural two-lane highway collect litter and hold a big, blue garbage bag.

We’ve got your New Year’s resolution in the bag!

Longtime volunteer group leader Melissa Owen welcomes you to join the Jan. 25 “All the Way to the Border” cleanup held along 45-miles of State Route 286 between Three Points Junction and Sasabe at the Arizona/Mexico border. 

If you’d like to participate in this annual event, complete your Adopt a Highway Volunteer Permit Application by Jan. 10, 2024, and send it to [email protected] along with your request for a one-day permit and an adoptable mile for “All the Way to the Border.”

ADOT will assign an available mile along the route to interested participants. Volunteers gather for a safety briefing near Three Points on Saturday, Jan. 25, before heading to their adopted miles.

Owen and 120 of her closest friends and neighbors bagged 2 tons of trash last January, including aluminum cans, cigarette butts and building materials. This coming January marks 10 years of coordinated efforts with ADOT, neighbors and local organizations to help reduce litter along SR 286. 

Arizona has hundreds of miles available for adoption statewide. If you’d like to gather a few times a year to bag trash with your own team, please visit our Getting Started page for step-by-step instructions.

If you're looking for a way to make positive change in the new year, plenty of inspiration is waiting for you in the Adopt a Highway News. Sometimes the simple act of bagging trash – as in Melissa Owen’s case, causes miles of good deeds and a decade of growing friendships. 

Adopt a Highway: Cool weather makes volunteer spirits bright

Adopt a Highway: Cool weather makes volunteer spirits bright

Adopt a Highway: Cool weather makes volunteer spirits bright

Adopt a Highway: Cool weather makes volunteer spirits bright

By Mary Currie / ADOT Communications
December 16, 2024
A person holds an elf hat.

If you are looking for a unique and meaningful way this holiday season to meet friends and family or just to get away from it all for a few hours, consider a holiday highway cleanup. 

For Adopt a Highway volunteer groups, it’s a two-step process. Notify your designated ADOT coordinator in advance of the intended volunteer date and then plan your cleanup day strategy. 

Getting outdoors during an Arizona winter in milder central and southern regions is a favorite pastime for residents and winter visitors.  Maybe it’s a 90-minute cleanup and then gathering for breakfast or a barbeque lunch. These are scenarios shared by volunteers who love to get outdoors and enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes from leaving your mile better than you found it! 

ADOT supplies the trash bags and safety vests, and you plan group cleanups a few times per year. Reporting your litter to us after each cleanup is simple and a key to our understanding of the positive impact volunteers make each year by tidying up along the Arizona state highway system.

Still thinking about it? Check out our website for details on getting started. It’s a positive way to express yourself and help keep Arizona looking grand. 

Thank you and happy holidays to our dedicated volunteers! 

 

ADOT Kids: Showcasing your ‘Keep It Grand’ artwork

ADOT Kids: Showcasing your ‘Keep It Grand’ artwork

ADOT Kids: Showcasing your ‘Keep It Grand’ artwork

ADOT Kids: Showcasing your ‘Keep It Grand’ artwork

By Mary Currie / ADOT Communications
August 17, 2024
A drawing of the state of Arizona, including desert scenery, a cactus, the sun and the state flag.

The results are in! 

ADOT is proud to reveal the artwork submitted by participants of the Keep it Grand Art Challenge. Check out the artwork in this Flickr album. 

Kids of all ages were challenged to grab their art supplies and color, doodle or paint the Keep it Grand logo. We asked for colorful images as a reminder of roadside beauty. 

Colorful sun rays, desert wildlife and a super-spiny saguaro are some of the elements that caught our attention. Patriotic colors of the United States flag and the red and gold rays of the Arizona state flag  portray great pride in our southwestern landscape and what a litter-free Arizona means to these young artists. Way to go!

This challenge is a great reminder to stash trash during outdoor activities, until it can be properly disposed of in a trash receptacle. 

We appreciate the comments received from a couple of our artists, too. Here’s what they had to say about roadside litter. 

Aleah, a 14-year-old from El Mirage, said, “The problem with roadside litter is that it has numerous impacts on everything. Litter creates filthy landscape views due to litter disposed incorrectly. Litter also creates hazardous conditions to the wildlife, ranging from eating trash that may hurt or kill wildlife to litter left that is hot (cigarettes, abandoned cars) that may create a fire and devastate the area of plant and animal life.” 

Thank you for your response, Aleah. We hope that all travelers consider your wise observations. 

Five-year-old Reilly from Phoenix, got right to the point: “Trash on the road makes it look ugly. We should put it in the trash.” 

We couldn’t agree more, Reilly.

Artists received a printable certificate of appreciation for their entries, like the feature image shown above. Please visit the ADOT Kids website at azdot.gov/adotkids for more fun and educational activities and videos!

Adopt a Highway: Volunteers gear up for National CleanUp Day

Adopt a Highway: Volunteers gear up for National CleanUp Day

Adopt a Highway: Volunteers gear up for National CleanUp Day

Adopt a Highway: Volunteers gear up for National CleanUp Day

By Mary Currie / ADOT Communications
August 6, 2024
A man picks up litter.

Register here as a first step to gathering friends and family for the 7th annual ADOT litter cleanup on National CleanUp Day, Saturday, Sept. 21.

While Adopt a Highway permits are for two-years and require cleanups several times per year, we will work to find an adoptable area suitable for a one-day gathering of volunteers on National CleanUp Day.  You bring gloves and pick-up-sticks and we will provide the bags and vests you’ll need to participate.

After the event, volunteer group leaders report the number of trash bags filled and how many volunteers participated. Letting us know about the great work you did helps us measure the success of the annual cleanup and we recognize your group with a well-deserved certificate of appreciation. 

The Adopt a Highway team plans to make site visits to as many volunteer groups as logistics allow on Sept. 21. If your group is located on our route we will contact you to coordinate a visit prior to event day.

We'd love to see and share your National CleanUp Day photos on social media. Please use the hashtag #NationalCleanUpDay and tag us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter/X. 

Thank you for considering ADOT as an opportunity to unite and reduce litter in Arizona. 

Arizona, Keep It Grand!

 

Adopt a Highway: Love, life and litter-free on State Route 87

Adopt a Highway: Love, life and litter-free on State Route 87

Adopt a Highway: Love, life and litter-free on State Route 87

Adopt a Highway: Love, life and litter-free on State Route 87

By Mary Currie / ADOT Communications
June 25, 2024
A group of people gather alongside a rural highway, posing for a photo beneath an adopt a highway sign.

When Lucinda Ramirez’ husband, Fred, unexpectedly passed away 20 years ago, their family decided to get involved with ADOT’s Adopt a Highway program in his memory. Fred Ramirez had worked 10 years as a highway and bridge inspector for ADOT, and this program provided the perfect opportunity to remember him while keeping the landscape he loved beautiful.

Ramirez worked for ADOT from 1989 to 1999, and during that time frame he was featured twice on the cover of Newsbeat, ADOT’s biweekly employee newsletter. “Years ago,” Ramirez recalled, “he gave a tour of one of his ADOT projects to our oldest son's Cub Scout group.” Ramirez’ son took an interest in engineering and is currently a civil engineer working for the city of Phoenix.

The family has maintained State Route 87, aka Beeline Highway, between mileposts 192-193 for two decades. Ramirez said, “We get many appreciative honks from passing motorists and thanks from cyclists passing by as we do the pickup. We have come across some unusual discards during our cleanups, including hot water heaters and Christmas trees. A huge pile of shrimp tails probably wins, as it was also incredibly smelly.” 

The family gets out twice a year for their cleanups and recently filled 10 large trash bags with unfortunate finds while on site. Participants number anywhere between 10-20 or more, and it is not unusual for family to travel from Tucson or as far away as the East Coast to join the fun. After the pickup is complete, they take a group photo and head home for a big breakfast. Someone is designated to stay back at the house to watch the kids and put casseroles in the oven. 

Ramirez told me that years ago a friend had provided the volunteers with tie-dyed shirts to look colorful during highway cleanups. Two of the volunteers moved to Tennessee and now don their tie-dyed shirts while picking up trash on a public hiking trail and finishing with their own photo. Ramirez said, “When our family looks back on our trash pickup gatherings, they are equal in status to the memories of holiday and birthday celebrations. Many of the people that join us on the pickups never knew Fred. They come to support our family and to have fun.”

A few years ago, Ramirez, a fourth grade teacher, was returning from a field trip with her class by way of SR 87. “Before reaching our mile, I told them to keep an eye out for our family’s sign. When we passed the sign, the bus driver honked the horn and all the students cheered. They asked questions and wanted to know how to get involved. We talked about things they could do now to help their community –they were too young then to pick up on the highway. I hope it planted a seed and that they will think twice before littering,” Ramirez said.

In closing, the Ramirez family is very grateful for the opportunity to serve the community and remember a man that dearly loved the Arizona landscape. If you are traveling northbound on SR 87 toward Payson watch for Fred’s sign at milepost 192, “In loving memory of Fred Ramirez.”

ADOT thanks Lucinda Ramirez for sharing her story and some fantastic photos we’ve shared in the included flickr album. Congratulations to the Ramirez family for 20 years of Adopt a Highway Volunteer service and many happy memories! 

Ramirez also joined us during a recent Earth Day and Arizona Volunteer Week Cleanup event at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Click here for information about the Adopt a Highway Volunteer Program. A great place to start your own family tradition. 

Adopt a Highway Love, life and litter-free on State Route 87

Get involved! Mark Volunteer Week by adopting a highway

Get involved! Mark Volunteer Week by adopting a highway

I-17 101 traffic interchange

Get involved! Mark Volunteer Week by adopting a highway

Get involved! Mark Volunteer Week by adopting a highway

April 22, 2024

Event on Earth Day calls attention to value of keeping highways grand

PHOENIX – Volunteers with the Arizona Department of Transportation’s Adopt a Highway program make a difference throughout the year, but the combination of Arizona Volunteer Week and Earth Day provides even more reason to get involved. 

With that in mind, a group of dedicated Arizonans joined a special Adopt a Highway cleanup in Phoenix early Monday, April 22. In addition to picking up more than 20 large bags of litter in State Route 143 right of way well away from travel lanes, this event was an opportunity for new volunteers to experience Adopt a Highway and for current volunteers to demonstrate the value of the program. 

“All across Arizona, Adopt a Highway volunteers are making a difference by helping keep our state grand,” said Mary Currie, ADOT’s Adopt a Highway Program Manager. “We hope showcasing our program during Arizona Volunteer Week and on Earth Day will encourage other Arizonans to join in.” 

During 2023, nearly 9,000 people in 850 Adopt a Highway volunteer groups filled more than 15,000 bags with roadside litter, mainly outside of Arizona’s metropolitan areas. The dollar value of these volunteers’ work, $674,000, demonstrates the great impact and saves ADOT money that can be committed to other needs in the state highway system.

Civic-minded individuals, families, religious groups, clubs and others may receive two-year permits to clean up roadside litter on highway segments, usually a mile in each direction and largely in rural areas, that are deemed safe for volunteers. 

Groups agree to pick up litter in an adopted stretch at least once per year and preferably three or more times a year. They coordinate with ADOT to arrange for safety vests, litter bags and training for pickup events and then report the results. 

Another benefit: Each adopted stretch has a recognition sign bearing the Adopt a Highway group’s name.

Even if Adopt a Highway doesn’t work for you right now, everyone should volunteer to help keep Arizona grand by keeping a litter bag in your vehicle and securing loads so litter and larger items don’t  blow onto roadways. 

For more information and to join our Adopt a Highway family, please visit azdot.gov/adoptahighway.

Arizonans took to state highways for National Cleanup Day

Arizonans took to state highways for National Cleanup Day

I-17 101 traffic interchange

Arizonans took to state highways for National Cleanup Day

Arizonans took to state highways for National Cleanup Day

September 20, 2023

Effort organized by ADOT Adopt a Highway removed 214 bags of litter

PHOENIX – Arizonans did their part on the recent National Cleanup Day by picking up 214 bags of litter along state highways through the Arizona Department of Transportation’s Adopt a Highway volunteer program. 

Fifteen groups with 123 volunteers answered the call to participate in this special event on Saturday, Sept.16. Some of those groups have adopted highway miles through Adopt a Highway, while others joined in for the day. 

One of those groups was the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection, which had seven volunteers fill 13 bags with litter along Oracle Road (State Route 77) on the north side of Oro Valley. 

“It feels good just cleaning up native habitat along the highway and making sure that all the native vegetation has space to grow and that people have a nice place to bike,” said Jonni Zeman, the group’s program and communications coordinator. “It’s great to just be here making a difference, even if it’s small.”

ADOT’s Tucson North Motor Vehicle Division office had 12 team members pick up 16 bags of litter along Oracle Road between Ina and Orange Grove roads, while two other team members delivered drinks and collected bags. The office has adopted this segment and will hold cleanups throughout the year.

“It’s just a way for us to connect to the community and be part of it,” said Jessica Robeson, an MVD customer service representative. 

Other state highways where volunteers participated in National Cleanup Day were Interstate 19, State Route 260 and US 60. 

This event complements the work of more than 6,000 Adopt a Highway volunteers who help keep state highways looking grand throughout the year. In 2022 alone, these volunteers filled more than 12,500 bags of litter while contributing time and effort worth more than $600,000. 

And there’s room for plenty more. Civic-minded individuals, families, religious groups and others may receive two-year permits to clean up roadside litter on highway segments, largely in rural areas, that are deemed safe for volunteers. You’ll see their names on signs identifying their adopted miles. 

For more information and to join our Adopt a Highway family, please visit azdot.gov/AdoptAHighway.

 

Adopt a Highway: Save the date Sept. 16 is National CleanUp Day

Adopt a Highway: Save the date Sept. 16 is National CleanUp Day

Adopt a Highway: Save the date Sept. 16 is National CleanUp Day

Adopt a Highway: Save the date Sept. 16 is National CleanUp Day

By Mary Currie / ADOT Communications
August 2, 2023
A woman removes litter from a highway shoulder in a rural, desert area with mountains in the distant background.

Welcome one and all! Whether you are an existing Adopt a Highway volunteer group or want to pitch-in for one day. This year National CleanUp Day is Saturday, Sept. 16—only seven weeks away. The day is set aside for civic-minded individuals and organizations to unite for the purpose of reducing litter in their communities along state highways.

Now is the time to gather volunteers and plan your cleanup. A registration notification and link will be sent in the coming weeks for new and existing volunteer groups to register with ADOT. 

We ask all groups to report litter bag collection totals within three days of the event. The data is then used to measure and track the amount of litter removed from Arizona’s highways. In 2022, more than 215 Adopt a Highway volunteers collected 2.3 tons of litter in one day. The second largest haul of litter in our five-year history of National CleanUp Day participation.

The Adopt a Highway team plans to visit as many volunteer groups as logistics allow. If your clean up is along our route, we will contact you before Sept. 16 to coordinate details. 

Thank you for considering National CleanUp Day as an opportunity to volunteer and help reduce litter along state highways. 

Arizona, Keep It Grand!

Hey ADOT Kids! Don’t be litter bugs!

Hey ADOT Kids! Don’t be litter bugs!

Hey ADOT Kids! Don’t be litter bugs!

Hey ADOT Kids! Don’t be litter bugs!

By Audrey St. Clair / ADOT Communications
June 20, 2023
Litter Bug mean

People litter when they throw their garbage somewhere instead of putting it in a trash can. Sometimes people litter when they don’t care about the place where they’re throwing their trash, or when they think someone else will come and clean up after them. 

Not only is litter unsightly to see on the ground, along our highways or in waterways, but this type of pollution hurts people and the planet in multiple ways. 

Litter costs money to clean up, it can hurt humans and wildlife, and it also harms the environment as the chemicals in plastic break down and enter the soil or the water. Litter can wind up in storm drains that could then cause flooding on the roads.

Litter is a problem that can be controlled and YOU CAN HELP make a difference! 

How can you help? Never let trash escape from your car. Keep it contained in a bag inside of your vehicle. Find a proper trash container to throw it in, or recycle it if you can. (Did you know that most of the aluminum cans in the United States are made with recycled aluminum?)

Don’t throw apple cores, banana peels or other food parts out the window. Not only is it ugly, but animals can be attracted to the scent and can cause a crash if they cross the road.

Help us by doing  your part to keep Arizona Grand!

Download and print a fun scrambled word sheet to find types of litter found on Arizona roads. Visit the ADOT Kids website at azdot.gov/ADOTKids for activities and videos about freeways … and more!