Noting this springtime event as a fun and gratifying community service project, 4-H club members and leaders who have called the Seipstown Grange their home for decades swelled the rank of Grangers with their Adopt-A-Highway cleanup of 11 miles of highway.

Eight of those miles included Route 100 between Fogelsville and Pleasant Corners and three miles of Claussville Road between Route 100 and Seipstown.

This was the sixth consecutive year for the 4-H’s participation and the 27th year for the Grange’s role in Keep America Beautiful and PennDOT’s Adopt-A-Highway programs.

After everyone had completed their designated areas, the haul was in excess of 45 overflowing large trash bags and more than enough buckets, lumber, car debris from accidents, rubber treads from trucks to fill the bed of a pickup truck.

Joining the 4-H members and leaders, who were coordinated by Jodi Schiffert, were Grange members Ron and Lyla Derr, Joe Zeller and Grange Program Coordinator Ann Wertman as well as cleanup enthusiasts Grant and Jill Mertz.

In the end, one can only grimly note the haul each year never diminishes in size, although the fall cleanup is less voluminous .

This is probably due to litter hidden under heavy grass growth until the next spring.

An Editor’s View which was published in the Northwestern Press in 2011 noted that according to Keep America Beautiful, a volunteer based community action and education group, at least 51.2 billion pieces of litter “were left” on roadways in our nation in 2009.

The article also noted aggressive public education campaigns were lowering the litter rate.

In 2015, they reported on the pounds and pounds litter and debris collected by volunteers from roadways, parks and other public spaces fortunate enough to be beautified throughout the country.

PennDOT reported it spends $10.1 million cleaning up roadside litter every year as well as a cost of $835 per ton to clean up an illegal dumpsite.

While the Seipstown Grange is very appreciative of the assistance by the 4-H in spring, additional volunteers are always needed to assist this worthy Seipstown Grange service program.

Anyone who would like to be part of this beautification can do so by calling Ann Wertman at 610-298-3254.

An hour or two is a great contribution to the cause.

“Spring is by far the biggest cleanup time and with the aging and decreased membership of our Grange we may be forced to abandon this worthy program without these wonderful youth of our local 4-H,” Wertman stated.

With decreasing participants in the cleanup of this scenic area of northwestern Lehigh County they have beautified for the past 27 years, there may come a time the area once again looks like the local interstates.