Volunteering in my neighborhood.
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Thank you.
How about you, what is your own answer to your question?
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My primary volunteering is as follows:
I am an ardent foe of litter, so I go on a one-man campaign of clearing it from local streets, curbs, bus stops, parking lots, playgrounds, etc.
I have a little rig that I made in my garage, it consists of an old luggage caddy as its base, on top of which I mounted a collapsible 42-gallon trash bag shell secured with bungee cords. I place a heavy-duty trash bag in it, fold it down and put it in the trunk of my car. I have a street broom-and-dustbin set, a rake, a trash retrieval tool, a 2-gallon bucket, and a few other implements that I attach to the outside of the rig, they all fit into the trunk too. I load up and drive to what I call my Cleanup Projects.
When I arrive at the selected project location (or locations) for that day, I put my rig together, I don a bright yellow fluorescent vest, a sun hat, my earphones, my 80s, 70s and 60s music, and off I go. I’ll spend a minimum of two hours up to a maximum of five hours, one trash bag is usually filled in thirty to forty-five minutes, I carry extras in the bottom of the cart. I load up the filled bags and either dispose of them at a dumpster next the project sites, or haul them back to my home to be thrown out with the weekly sanitation pickup. The small bucket I carry with me is for recyclables, which I separate as I pick them up.
In addition to the locations I listed above, I also have a much smaller rig that I use from my house going on foot around my block to do a cleanup.
So, as you can see, this particular volunteering is not through an established organization or entity other than good ol’ Randy himself.
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Thank you for reminding me, my friend. Believe it or not, about two years ago, I found a $100 bill by the side of a highway off ramp.
There are also times when people see what I’m doing and engage in conversation with me, many say something to the effect of, “It’s about time the city sent someone out here,” or, “My area needs this too, what number do I call at county administration to request a cleanup?” Imagine their surprise when I tell them that I‘m doing it on my own and that I hate litter, and my philosophy is ‘If not us, and if not now, whom and when?” I’ve received a lot of encouragement and gratitude from perfect strangers, even if it’s just blowing the car horn and waving to me. Some people bellow about how they expect the local government to do it because that’s why they pay taxes. I can’t stand living in a slum, and I know the city nor county is going to take care of it, as evidenced by the fact that the problem exists and persists yet they never act. If you want something done . . .
More than once, people have joined me in cleaning up, but never for the entire time period nor distance that I cover, and beyond that, some people donate money to me for what I’m doing, which I accept gladly because it offsets some of the costs of my supplies [sidebar, Mrs Randy D has never been happy with the amount of money I spend on this]. A dollar here and there is appreciated.
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Hey, wait . . .
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She’s merely setting the parameters for this particular question that she’s posting, not necessarily saying that there is anything wrong in general with those three things, just that they’re not what fit this conversation.
It’s something that many of us do here when post some of our questions, yourself included.
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officegirl 