Kimberly Cannon | The Valdosta Daily TimesRichard Hardy, public works director, and Aaron Strickland, executive director of Keep Lowndes/Valdosta Beautiful, provide information on Adopt-A-Road/Street Thursday at the public works facility.  

VALDOSTA — Keep Lowndes/Valdosta Beautiful promoted Adopt-A-Road/Street at the public works facility last week.

Adopt-A-Road/Street is a volunteer litter program sponsored by the Keep Lowndes/Valdosta Beautiful Commission in which groups or organizations adopt at least one mile of a city street or county road, taking responsibility for controlling the litter problem and completing at least four general cleanups a year.  

Aaron Strickland, executive director of Keep Lowndes/Valdosta Beautiful, said Adopt-A-Road/Street has about 65 participants. 

“On the day of our recent Great American Cleanup that we had on April 22, we had four Adopt-A-Road/Adopt-A-Street groups doing our clean-ups on that day, and we counted those numbers toward our final numbers for the cleanup, and just those four groups, about 43 volunteers, picked up a little over a thousand pounds of trash that was on our city and county roadsides,” Strickland said. “So, it’s a very valuable program, and it certainly helps out.”

Strickland said one of the largest participants in the Adopt-A-Road program is the The Langdale Company, which adopted parts of Rocky Ford Road, and has picked up more than a ton and a half of trash. 

Richard Hardy, public works director, said Keep Lowndes/Valdosta Beautiful and public works both have the same goal: keep the streets clean. 

Keep Lowndes/Valdosta Beautiful, a non-profit affiliate of Keep Georgia Beautiful and Keep America Beautiful, was founded in October 1997, Strickland said. 

Groups or organizations interested in adopting a road or street can contact Keep Lowndes/Valdosta Beautiful, (229) 671-3698. 

Kimberly Cannon is an Intern Reporter with The Valdosta Daily Times. Her extension is 1376.