Volunteers clean up Hogge Park
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| Volunteers pick up trash in Hogge Park. [FCPD] |
Hogge Park in Bailey’s Crossroads is a lot cleaner, thanks to the efforts of community residents, Stuart High School students, Fairfax County police officers, sheriff’s deputies, and Park Authority representatives. About 60 volunteers who took part in a cleanup day Jan. 9 collected enough litter to fill 70 trash bags, the FCPD reports.
The Sheriff Department’s Community Labor Force and Fairfax County Park Authority are working together with local homeowner associations to continue the effort to clean up downed trees and invasive plants and trash in Hogge Park throughout the month.
good work people! sad there was that much trash though.
When I read this article I thought the same thing as the first comment. I am proud we have amazing people in our community who will to pick up others trash. I am disgusted that we have people in our community that would throw out their trash like that.
I've done a number of stream and roadside clean-ups (though I admit it's been a while since). Just one clean-up project can open a person's eyes to exactly how much waste people strew everywhere–even those of us who knew about it before we get there really gain a stronger sense of exactly how much crap there is because you're scanning, picking up a piece of something, then discovering that there's more under it, or right beside it….or ten yards away. A lot of junk doesn't just stay where it lands, but ends up scattered like leaves after a storm. It can be overwhelming and sometimes it's hard to know where and when to stop–even if that's already been decided by the organizer of that project.
Even some people who wouldn't deliberately put something on the ground won't bother to pick up something that they dropped, or some piece of trash that's within easy reach. I believe that it's not just about disregard for one's surroundings, but also the idea that "I didn't do it so I don't have to undo it," and the perception that it's demeaning to clean up after someone else–or even oneself. I'm sure that some people wonder what I'm doing when I pick something up, and some will find it odd, but I'll continue to do it anyway. Unfortunately, I know that for every item I pick up for trash or recycling, there are many more that are falling to the ground.
Years ago, we used to call trash like that "pollution," but I suppose grand-scale environmental destruction and contamination has eclipsed that. Still…it only takes a second or two to do *something.*
That's because we live in a DUMP.
The renters and home owners won't pick up the trash in front of their own homes because they were well trained to be pigs in the foreign slums they came from. Quite unfortunate for us that we have to live in such squalor.
COOL! CAN WE DO THIS TO VALLEYCREST PARK NEXT?
As a neighbor behind Hogge Park, thanks to all who helped in this clean up. Unfortunately, the homeless and others had decided this was their place to have a home. We have had numerous problems of trash, etc and trespassing on our properties. We hope the county and neighbors can keep this clean and maintain this as a neighborhood park to enjoy. The county is also clearing out underbrush, vines etc to help prevent others using it as their home. Again thanks and will be glad to help others in their cleanup.
I have done cleanups in other parts of Virginia; I wasn't just talking about Annandale–or even restricting my comments to Northern Virginia, suburban, or urban locales! Over the decades I've seen first-hand that people from everywhere and anywhere treat this planet like, well, garbage.
I understand the frustration about pollution–BELIEVE me–but please, let's leave the resentment and racial/ethnic/socio-economic vitriol out of a thread for once.
Peace.
–Anon 6:26