Adopt a Highway

     What do cell phones, cigarette lighters, coffee cups, candy wrappers, and cigarette butts all have in common? Well, yeah; they all begin with the letter “C.” Besides that, you can find them all (and a lot of other trash) littering Highway 54 between East Elm Street and the Haw River Bridge—in copious quantity.

On Saturday, September 29, 2007, just before sunrise, some Rotarians met outside the Graham Civic Center, sipping coffee and discussing the best way to attack a little over two miles of road. After dividing the roadway amongst those present and those who would come later, they set out with orange vests, orange gloves, and orange trash bags...and an eye for trash.
They found plenty. President Chuck Carroll, Chris Rollins, Jeff Prichard, Mark Ryman, Ty Reed and his nephew, Devynn, and Dexter Barbee and his son, Travis, filled bags with trash from both sides of the roadway, beginning just north of the Linwood Cemetary where East Elm and East Harden Streets intersect in front of Dyna Yarn. There—under the sign that

proclaims Rotary keeps that stretch of road clean—Rotarians did just that! They bagged the trash along the mill’s frontage and other businesses, through the residential area, in front of the Travel Inn, up the Interstate ramps, under the bridge, and further south all the way beyond Conklin Oil and up to Riverview Baptist Church and the Haw River bridge at Cooper Road.
Along the way, they found more than trash; they discovered a common purpose—“Service above self.”     

Submitted by Mark Ryman, October 2007