B.J. Rolli has been passionate about keeping her community clean since she was a child.
Rolli, of the Village of McClure, said she walks trails with friends, picking up trash twice a week on The Hogeye Preserve Nature Trail and Spanish Moss Park in The Villages just to keep things looking nice.
“As a child, I was indoctrinated to pick up trash and keep the community clean,” Rolli said. “When I lived in Philadelphia, I would pick up trash in the parking lot of my job at 6:30 a.m. They didn’t know I was doing that.
“I feel it’s important to be kind to Mother Earth,” she said. “Individually, we can’t do a lot about climate change, but individually, we can clean our communities and teach others not to litter.”
Rolli was one of nearly 15 people who volunteered to pick up trash with the Wildwood Street Sweepers on April 22 during the Keep Wildwood Beautiful Earth Day Litter Cleanup Event.
The Wildwood Street Sweepers is a volunteer community cleanup program that was formed in 2022 and is part of the Keep Wildwood Beautiful initiative.
Wildwood took on Keep Wildwood Beautiful after the city achieved affiliate status with Keep America Beautiful, a national program established in 1953 to encourage recycling and discourage littering.
Tara Tradd, code compliance manager for the City of Wildwood, said the city was excited to host the event in honor of Earth Day.
“This event is for the awareness of the community so they know that we thought of them,” Tradd said. “We do have neighborhoods in the city where cleanups could be needed every three months. Residents can contact us if they want to organize a small cleanup in their neighborhood. We will provide resources like grabbers and garbage bags.
“You can find fast food waste and bottles all on the side of the road,” she said. “The best thing people can do is keep their property and about 5 feet on either side clean to keep the neighborhood looking nice.”
Before the event started, Tradd and Stuart Ellington, City of Wildwood code compliance specialist, explained safety rules and pointed out boundaries of the cleanup, which expanded six blocks from E Clyde Street to Cleveland Avenue.
Ellington warned participants not to step into the road and be wary of cars taking detour routes due to nearby construction.
“This is the perfect weather to do this,” he said. “It’s important that you look after each other and drink plenty of water to stay hydrated.”
Along with water, participants were able to grab tangerines, bananas or a granola bar to nourish themselves. They were also given yellow high-visibility vests, grabbers and gloves to help with the cleanup.
Volunteers split up between three sections of the cleanup zone.
Barry Smith, of Oxford, joined Rolli in a small team of six people.
Smith learned about the event when he saw a flier while at work at Home Depot in Wildwood. He decided to help out even though it was his day off from work.
“People just discard things without thinking about it. It’s horrible,” Smith said. “We should all be our own keeper and pick up our own trash.”
Roni Wood, Wildwood Police Department community outreach specialist, said she remembers being in school learning the phrase, “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute.”
“There was this little owl that would say that,” she said. “It bugs me today, seeing people throw trash on the ground. We have to take pride in our communities.”
Wood said the community should come together in unique ways to keep neighborhoods clean of trash and misused prescription drugs, noting the outdoor community cleanup was held three days before the Wildwood Police Department’s Take Back Day, a drive-thru event part of the National Prescription Drug Take Back Days.
Throughout the hours of picking up trash, Wood found multiple shards of glass she said could penetrate a person’s shoe.
Even if it’s not picking up trash on the side of the street like volunteers with the Wildwood Street Sweepers, Wood said people can keep their community clean and safe by “recycling, planting flowers and making sure to report streetlights if they are out.”
An empty bag of chips, four empty wine bottles, beer cans, candy wrappers and a tire are just some of the trash Rolli, Smith and Wood picked up. Rolli said it’s important for people to be conscientious citizens if they want to keep their community clean.
At the end of two hours, the back of Rodney Ivery’s City of Wildwood Public Works truck was filled with trash and three working shopping carts he said he’d like to return to the store.
Ivery said he learned the importance of keeping a community clean from Smokey Bear.
“Smokey Bear would tell us about not littering,” he said. “Cleanliness should be No. 1 in all parts of life.”
To learn more about the Wildwood Street Sweepers, or to request resources to host your own cleanup, contact CodeEnforcement@wildwood-fl.gov or call 352-661-6067.
Staff writer Brea Jones can be reached at 352-753-1119 ext. 5414, or Brea.jones@thevillagesmedia.com.
