Residents and JMU Students “Adopt A Highway”
A group of Sunnyside residents, along with student volunteers from JMU, took to the road Saturday, April 14, for the semi-annual cleanup of Massanetta Springs Road under the Adopt-A-Highway program of the Virginia Department of Transportation.
A sunny, warm day made the task relatively easy as one group worked west from Sunnyside toward Shen Lake Road and back, while the group of mostly JMU students picked up considerably more trash along the road out toward Rt. 33.
The students were taking part in the university’s “Big Event” on Saturday, in which students are encouraged to get involved in the community. Tori Hansen, Sunnyside Volunteer Coordinator, said the event committee contacted her to see if some students could be involved with Sunnyside, and she felt this would be a good opportunity for the students to interact with residents. The six students are members of the Multi-Cultural Greek Council on campus.
This is the third year Andy Sale has coordinated the effort, getting signs, safety vests, trash bags and other equipment from VDOT and providing safety instructions for work along the heavily traveled road. Others participating were: Joel Grow, Galen Moses, Don Oxley, John Noffsinger, Charlie Bell, Andy Sale, Bill Dent, six JMU students, and Tori Hansen
After about two hours of work, the teams had collected five bags of trash, which were left along the side of the road for VDOT to collect.
As a “reward” for this effort, VDOT puts up signs at both ends of this section of road noting that Sunnyside participates in the Adopt-A-Road program.
The next trash collection is scheduled for fall 2018. Watch for the new date and plan to participate! -- Galen Moses