Roadsides throughout Mathews were lined with volunteers, orange trash bags in hand, during Saturday’s successful Mathews Spring Community Cleanup.

An energized group of individual residents and civic organizations collectively picked up 99 bags of trash along 27 miles of roadways throughout the county, according to a press release from the Mathews County Visitor and Information Center, which organized the event. All told, 61 participants turned out this year.

MCVIC has now launched a new tool for community members to upload their cleanup data to a public map. The goal of the map is for residents, Adopt-a-Highway groups, and cleanup coordinators to track ongoing cleanups in Mathews and target areas that have not been focused on, said the release.

“We want to highlight the hard work of dedicated citizens that care deeply for the natural beauty of our community,” said MCVIC Executive Director Emily Allen, “and we hope that they will use this tool to help us maximize countywide efforts.”

To see this weekend’s cleanup data and submit future cleanups, visit visitmathews.com/cleanup. 

“When you see the data visually, you can see that small individual efforts can collectively make a huge difference,” said Allen. “Consider cleaning up for Earth Day, April 22nd, and MCVIC will sponsor you with supplies.”