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04/14/2007: "Anti-Litter Initiative's New Program: Imagine No Litter!"

By Lori Stokes, San Juan Island Anti-Litter Initiative

The litter problem on our beautiful island belongs to all of us, and it won’t go away unless all of us do our part. Start by imagining no litter anywhere! Wouldn’t that be something???

The San Juan Island Anti-Litter Initiative is sponsoring a new campaign to help tackle the litter problem on an island-wide basis. It’s called Imagine No Litter!, and is an island version of the more well-known adopt-a-road program that exists in other areas of the country.

There are already many residents who are regularly cleaning certain roadsides or beach areas. Most notable is the volunteer group Trash Masters, who have been picking up litter along the entire length of Roche Harbor Road for over a year. Unfortunately, the amount of litter they are collecting each month doesn’t seem to be declining, but our hope is that the relatively recent “Secure Your Load” campaign has raised people’s awareness about the problem of trash blowing out of the back of pick-up trucks en route to the Transfer Station on Sutton Road.

You can sign up to help -- either as an individual or as part of a group (e.g., a family, a neighborhood, a business, a club) -- by mailing in the form included in the flyer that is being sent this week to all island residences, or by calling or e-mailing me (Lori Stokes, 378-4643, lori@rockisland.com), or by marking the map that will be on display at Market Place from April 14-28.

If each of us volunteers to do just a little bit, just imagine the huge impact that all of us together will have!

Lori Stokes is one of the founders of the San Juan Island Anti-Litter Initiative )