Several years ago, I was walking down Broadway in New York City and the young man in front of me was eating something out of a package. As he ate his food, he would take the paper wrapper and the packaging and just thrown it on the sidewalk as he kept walking. I was thinking to myself that his trash all over the sidewalk was pretty terrible. 

My thoughts were interrupted when from behind me there was an extremely loud piercing woman’s voice saying, “hey, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Then a very petite blonde woman came charging past me at full speed continuing to yell at top volume at the litterer for his rude behavior. She charged right up to him, and he was frozen in place and completely shocked. It turned out he was being verbally berated by none other than the famous Broadway singer and Hollywood star Bette Midler for littering. To make matters worse for the litterbug, because she is so famous, the guy was not only being chewed out by a professional top volume voice used to regularly reach the back row seats in a balcony, which resulted in attracting a small crowd of curious onlookers, myself included, as Ms. Midler her arms gesturing, picked up all his trash and then showed him where the nearest trash can was located. It was my first firsthand encounter in environmental activism, and it taught me a lesson about doing something about littering. Not being at all famous, I had to seek other more practical alternatives to do my part to keep our environment clean and free of trash.

I am a firm believer that you can always do something positive about resolving a problem, so in addition to fiercely recycling and picking up any litter I see laying around, for the past five years I have volunteered for the Upper Delaware Council’s Litter Sweep in the Town of Highland. The Council is sponsoring the Sweep in thirteen other townships in the Delaware River corridor to remove trash and litter along roadways and the riverbanks to help keep the Delaware River clean. As many know the water from the Delaware serves as a critical source for drinking water for over thirteen million New Yorkers. 

The Sixth Annual Highland Litter Sweep will take place on Saturday April 18^th at the Cul-de Sac in Barryville next to the Shohola Bridge, starting with a volunteer meeting at 9am with a complimentary coffee and bagel breakfast from the Stickett Inn Café. All seven volunteer teams get a free tee shirt, necessary clean up equipment and their assignment areas and the workday begins. 

Last year, over three hundred and fifty commercial trash bags were collected and loaded into three dumpsters. After about three hours of work there will be an ice cream and pizza party held for the work crews and volunteers sponsored by The Corner Shop, El Castello’s Pizzeria and Bistro and Cottage Wines. As in years past the topic of conversation is all about the weird stuff we removed-such as thirteen mattresses and twenty-six car tires. And certainly, a lot more beer bottles than coffee cups and soda cans-a fact I always remember when driving on route 97. The theme this year is the celebration of our Country’s 250 year is “Keeping Our Country Beautiful.” Its America’s Semi quincentennial- signifying 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence- or America250. What better way to celebrate than an act of service for our community. There is no pre-registration to join the Litter Sweep and all you need to do is show up. For more information go to upperdelawarecouncil.org. I’m sure Bette would be so proud!