Adopt-A-Highway program celebrates 25th anniversary

Wyoming’s Adopt-A-Highway program is celebrating 25 years of helping keep the view from the state’s highways clean, and saluting the volunteers around the state who participate, particularly the 11 groups that have been cleaning since the beginning.

The Cheyenne Sunrise Lions Club, Cheyenne Frontier Lions Club, Casper Mountain Lions Club, Bethel Baptist Church of Casper, Alpine Ladies League, Jackson District Cub Scouts, Ranchester-Dayton Rotary Club, Story Lions Club, Gillette Lions Club, Kiwanis Club of Thermopolis and the Powell Girl Scouts have participated in the program since 1989.

They are among approximately 1,000 groups statewide currently volunteering their time and effort to help keep Wyoming’s roadsides clean.

Citing the valuable community service those groups provide and their contribution to reducing the amount of taxpayer money needed for litter control, Gov. Matt Mead has proclaimed Sept. 9 Adopt-A-Highway Volunteers Appreciation Day in Wyoming.

Members of the Cheyenne Sunrise Lions Club say they clean their two-mile highway section to help make Cheyenne look good.

“As the first club to pick a two-mile stretch, we were able to pick this section that runs right past the Frontier Days grounds and F.E. Warren Air Force Base,” club member John Harper said before a recent cleanup. “Over the years we’ve tried to do our share by picking that up before all the tourists come to town.”

Harper, who recently completed a term on the board of directors of Lions Clubs International, said Adopt-A-Highway is a good fit for the club’s community service efforts because one of the Lions’ four major areas of emphasis is the environment.

“I think a lot of our club’s dedication is just the pride of ownership,” he said. “We still lay claim that we were the first club, and we’re proud of that.”

Each participating group signs an agreement to pick up litter twice a year on a two-mile section of highway for at least two years. WYDOT erects road signs recognizing the group at each end of the adopted section, and provides the orange safety vests and trash bags used during cleanups.

“WYDOT continues to value and appreciate the efforts of the Adopt-A-Highway volunteer groups,” State Maintenance Engineer Kent Ketterling said. “The commitment and dedication shown by these groups to keep the roadsides around their communities clean is a testament to the quality of citizens we have in our great state. I would like to express my sincere appreciation on behalf of WYDOT for the great job these volunteer groups perform to make our state a better place to visit and live.”

It costs WYDOT more than $2 million a year to clean roadsides, and without the help of AAH groups, many of the state’s roadsides wouldn’t get cleaned every year.

Roy Scott, president of the Story Lions Club, said the turnout for the group’s cleanups ranges from 10 to 30 people, and from grandkids to octogenarians.

“We’re a pretty tight-knit community in Story, and the cleanups are a way for us to give back to the community,” Scott said. “We have two members in their 80s who have never missed. Some of them have four-wheelers they park along the road and then walk the ditch.”

When Wyoming initiated its Adopt-A-Highway program in 1989, it was the 18th state to implement the program that originated in Texas in 1985.