Sandy Lafleur cleared 15 bags of trash off her local highway – and in the process, raised more than $1,000 for a local cause.
When the snow melts, Lafleur is one of many who dons a reflective vest to clean up accumulated trash on the roadways for the town-wide spring clean up. This year, she went solo due to social distancing, but she still wanted to make her town a little cleaner.
“The town had been planning to do something bigger, but given the circumstances, weren’t able to,” Lafleur said. “I had the blue bags, and the trash isn’t going to pick itself up. It really needed to be done.”
She decided to kill two birds with one stone.
Lafleur posted a challenge on social media, asking friends to sponsor her cleanup efforts by pledging a dollar amount per bag, which she donated to Baby Steps Family Assistance in Claremont, a charity which began as a 4-H community service project in 2012 to provide supplies and resources to new parents.
Lafleur said she knows someone on the board for Baby Steps, and that demand is high right now.
“No one is having baby showers, people need this more than ever,” Lafleur said.
Donations started rolling in. Some people pledged a dollar per bag of trash. Some as many as $10.
By the time she went out to clean the roads, Lafleur had secured pledges of $79 per bag.
“When people are raising money for good causes, they’ll do something like a walk-a-thon. And that’s great, but at the end of the day, what do you have besides blisters, and that’s it? With this, there’s a direct benefit. People were thrilled to sponsor it, the roads get cleaned, and to have it go to a good cause, it’s just a win-win-win,” Lafleur said.
Lafleur set out on Route 31 and spent six hours collecting trash, filling 15 bags for a total of $1,185 in pledges.
“I ran out of time, and I ran out of bags,” Lafleur said.
She said she’s throwing down the gauntlet for others to take up and collect their own pledges for charities, or to purchase gift certificates at local businesses or restaurants struggling for clientele.
“There was so much trash, it was killing me. Fifteen bags didn’t make a dent. There’s no shortage of trash. But if more people would do this, we could make a positive impact.”
Lafleur said she’s willing to be the first sponsor for the next Wilton area resident to take up the challenge, putting down a pledge of $2.50 per bag collected, and has even offered to loan her “professional trash picking” equipment – reflective vest, wheeled cart and grabbing tool – to the first taker.