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As I was preparing to retire earlier this year, I asked an older friend for advice. Don’t volunteer too much too soon, he told me. Even in retirement, your time isn’t infinite, he said, so don’t overcommit. You need to be picky.
Well, I am picky — literally. I pick up trash.
Every Saturday morning, I stroll my 66-year-old retired self over to a coffeehouse in my community, the quaint Chesapeake Bay city of Havre de Grace, Maryland. There, I meet up with a group that ranges in size from 10 to 30 people, depending on the weekend. We’re a mix of retirees (with past job titles that include teacher, nurse and drug counselor), folks still in the workforce, and some high school and college students.
We are the Citizens Against Trash!
We schmooze for a few minutes, catching up on one another’s news. Then we each pull on an orange CAT Club baseball cap, pick up an orange bucket and a trash grabber, and fan out across town in pairs or gangs to pick up litter on streets, in alleys and along the shoreline of the Chesapeake Bay.
Why do I do this? The first and most important reason is that I really hate litter. It saddens me whenever I see garbage blighting the landscape. Research shows that litter lowers property values and creates an environment of disrespect that can actually lead to increased crime. What’s more, litter in my hometown eventually flows into the Chesapeake Bay, polluting the water and killing crabs and fish. So keeping our neighborhoods tidy makes my daily walks a delight, preserves the value of our home, improves community safety and helps local businesses that depend on a healthy bay to attract sailors, fishermen and other visitors.
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