Two area girls are cleaning up their neighborhood and trying to get others to do the same.
FARMINGTON – Twenty-eight shoes. A Care Bear bag. An air purifier. Records. A cracked unicorn and a bell. These were among the “treasures” that Caitlin Douglass and Eliza Richard found on their mission to pick up trash.

Of course, there was the regular trash – cigarette butts, food wrappers, Styrofoam, cans and other items – that added up to about 20 bags of trash.

Douglass, 11, and Richard, 10, both of Farmington, have cleaned up the roadsides of the North Street area neighborhood over the last month.

Some friends, sisters Hannah and Katie Maxey, have also helped.

Richard’s mother, Sandy, suggested the idea to clean up the roadsides to the girls.

“We noticed how dirty it was and it was really gross,” Douglass said.

“We thought it would make a difference if we picked up,” Eliza Richard said.

The girls took it further and passed out fliers to their friends about picking up trash on roads as a project for Earth Day, which is Thursday.

The pair even went as far as to get it cleared so that people could bring trash found on the roadsides for free this week, Richard said.
Plans for planting
The Cascade Brook School fifth-graders donned clear plastic gloves and brought a trash bag for another trip around the neighborhood Friday.

The girls cleaned a block of the neighborhood.

Douglass said both her family and Richard’s are going to plant gardens.

They’re hoping that people will see the gardens and it would remind them to clean up their trash.

Richard bent down to pick up a bottle.

“I can’t believe people throw away bottles,” she said. “You can get 5 cents for them.”

The two continued on their way picking up Styrofoam in a field, a can in a bush, cigarette butts on the road, dirty socks in a ditch.

Their bag was half-full and they’d only gone about 25 feet.

“The side of the roads that are heavily traveled have the most trash,” Richard said.
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