Into the Woods: Litter Hunting

A walk in the woods typically involves peace, beautiful sights, birds, trees, and maybe a deer. That was not the case for us today. Mom’s 4-H club, WHEP, took a romp in the woods; however, it wasn’t what you might think.

Big Sweep is an initiative in our county where groups collect trash along waterways, and records what is picked up too. For years, WHEP 4-H club has participated in this initiative. We are on our second location (we ran out of trash to pick up in the first area). Last year we started “litter hunting” at a boat ramp along the Neuse River. We thought last year held some interesting finds–a swimming pool– but this year took the cake.

We ended up finding 3 televisions, 1 recliners, a ton of carpet, a nightstand, 12 deer skeletons, like a thousand bottles, a lawn chair, and a host of other things.

All in all, we collected a grand total of 720 pounds of trash!! Can you believe that?!

Everyone was such good sports too. The kids actually loved hunting for litter and seeing what they could find. Into the woods they would go, and run out, excited about the virtual living room set they just found.

There was definitely a lot of gross stuff, but in the midst of the trash, there was still God’s beauty. It just needed a little (or rather big) sweep.