First Selectman Rudy Marconi and Beth Yanity.
Ridgefield’s annual spring cleaning and unofficial welcoming in of life and warmth and green — two “Rid Litter Days” — are this weekend, Saturday, April 25, and Sunday April, 26.
Citizens head out to clean up the long winter’s accumulation of trash along the roadsides, walking streets and parks and open spaces in their neighborhoods, picking up what the cold, snowy months have left. Many will be cleaning adopted streets or specific areas assigned to them by organizers from the Caudatowa Garden Club.
Others will simply do their part, heading out into their own neighborhoods with gloves and bags and bright orange vests.
Caudatowa Garden Club member Beth Yanity, who is co-chairing the event this year with Barbara Hartman, has been a prime mover behind the annual Rid Litter Days for 25 years now.
“I just thought this is something we should be doing as garden club members,” Yanity said.
“I always cared about the environment, from like sixth grade — I used to take nature walks and my dad. We took nature walks Saturday mornings. My dad was always preaching, You don’t destroy things, you protect things.”
Barbara Hartman said the Caudatowa Garden Club’s approach is simple.
“Our basic plan is for as many people in town as possible to help pick up litter on April 25 and 26,” she said.
“We have contacted the Girl and Boy Scouts, the Conservation Commission, the Chamber of Commerce and many of the service organizations in town to see if they can help out.
“If everyone helped out for 15 minutes, what a difference it would make!”
A flyer has been sent by both email and postal carriers to more than 125 people and organizations, including many that care for adopted streets, parks, intersection triangles, and other spots all over town.
“It’s that time again to pick up the litter and make our town clean and beautiful,” it reads. “If you have a neighborhood get-together before or after you clean up, it can be motivating and more fun!
“Please wear vests and gloves for safety.”
Orange safety vests are available on loan, and litter bags will be given out this week at the Parks and Recreation Center on Danbury Road and by the Chamber of Commerce on Route 35.
People who pick up trash Saturday and Sunday may take it to collection points, where town Highway Department workers will pick it up on Monday, April 27. Collections points are Farmingville School, East Ridge Middle School, Ridgefield High School, and the Fox Hill Lake recreation area.
Hazardous waste materials — paint, batteries and the like — as well as large appliances will not be accepted for pickup.
Hazardous materials may be taken to Household Hazardous Waste Day in Newtown on Saturday, May 16.
Selectmen’s recognition
The Board of Selectmen honored Beth Yanity’s long-standing efforts with an official proclamation “in recognition of her 25 years of dedication to the Rid Litter Program.”
It reads:
“Whereas, Beth Yanity conceived of and set in motion the Town of Ridgefield Rid Litter Day Program in 1990; and whereas Beth has served the Town of Ridgefield selflessly by personally organizing and championing the Rid Litter Day event for 25 years; now, therefore, we the Board of Selectmen of the Town of Ridgefield of the State of Connecticut, in recognition of Beth Yanity, would like to honor and commend her for her admirable level of dedication and commitment to this effort which has earned her the respect and love of her community.”
Yanity said the roots of the effort go back longer than the official 25 years of town Rid Litter Days.
“In the 60s, people started using the slogan ‘Protect our environment.’ The garden club became very active in protecting our environment,” she said.
“In the 70s they proclaimed Earth Day. I was involved with Debbie Mandelbaum, she had Earth Keepers,” she said. “They were talking about Earth Day and saving the environment. …
“At that time Lee Dickinson was working on the Recycling Center, and Jill Kelley had announced at our meeting that the bottle bill had been passed.”
Inspired by a study done of the Mianus River in Greenwich, Yanity help launch a study of the Titicus River in Ridgefield. She participated in a full-day workshop on the Connecticut River, and became involved in efforts to protect the town’s ground and surface waters.
“I got involved in the water studies,” she said. “Pure drinking water was the goal.”
Winter’s gift
Rid Litter Day was born because, well, litter really bugged her and in the spring so much of it was out there to be seen.
“All the litter I’d see in the parking lots drove me crazy,” she said.
“I thought about a townwide cleanup to get all that litter out of there.”
She proposed Rid Litter Day to then First Selectman Sue Manning.
“She thought it was a great idea,” Yanity said.
“I went around to the organizations — the Scouts, Lions, Rotary, the Women’s Committee, anything I could think of — and I talked to them.
“I thought this should start with the children, so they don’t start throwing the wrappers,” Yanity said.
“I got a flyer in the schools proclaiming we were having a townwide cleanup on, I think it was April 19 that first year, and everybody should get involved in cleaning up all the litter and debris near their homes and everywhere they saw it.”
Later, a year-round ‘Adopt-A-Street’ program was added, serving the same goal, though it was not originally directly connected to Rid Litter Day.
Today, Yanity carries on the anti-litter mission, managing a network of regular volunteers, and lobbying others to join the effort — especially on the annual Rid Litter Days.
“I send out two copies of a contract for people to commit to cleaning the area they designate — at least once a month, hopefully twice a month,” she said.
She’ll try to recruit “anyone I see and collar,” she said, preaching to potential volunteers at Founders Hall, the Community Center.
“I’ll be talking to people and say, ‘Where do you live?’ and I inveigle people to do it,” she said.
It’s understood that people will slack off a bit in the cold.
“It’s not during the winter months, when there’s snow,” she said.
But come spring, Yanity and her volunteers resume the task — starting with Rid Litter Days.
Others help out on a more informal basis, just doing a little bit in their own neighborhoods.
It’s an effort she feels has paid off.
“The streets are so much better than they used to be,” she said.