WAYNE COUNTY, PA — Michael J. Coppola grew repulsed from seeing trash all along the roads for so many years.

After waiting in vain for someone to do something, he decided to take matters into his own hands. Two years ago, he started a clean-sweep event with the hope that a few volunteers would show up. When none did, he cleaned up a two-mile stretch near the Lock 31 Canal Park outside Hawley by himself. After putting more effort into promoting the event last year, he got about 25 volunteers for a five-mile stretch from Hawley’s Settlers Inn to Honesdale’s Wayne County Ford. They collected more than 200 bags of garbage and hundreds of pounds of larger debris.

This year, at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 20, the “Keep Hawley—Honesdale Beautiful” group will undertake its biggest clean up to date: a simultaneous 10-Mile Clean Sweep of roadside trash and debris from Hawley’s Lake Region IGA to Honesdale’s Dave’s Super Duper. The venture is split into five sections, each with a dedicated resident to lead the charge, and volunteers are welcome the day of.

The Facebook event has been shared dozens of times—a promising sign for Coppola, who was able to recruit four local residents to adopt two-mile sections of road. For safety reasons, younger volunteers or families with children will be assigned to areas off the main road: Bingham Park, Central Park, Canal Park, White Mills sports field and the sidewalks in Hawley and Honesdale. After the event, participants and community members are invited to the Earth Day Jamfest and Buffet for food and live music at Cordaro’s Restaurant just outside Honesdale  from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m.

“My hope is to create more awareness and to give people a sense of empowerment that they don’t need to wait for an organized event like this to get out and make a difference,” Coppola, the main organizer for the project, said. “They can each do their own small part, yet make a large impact when it all comes together.”

Volunteer Jenna Wayne Mauder will lead the Texas Township Honesdale stretch from Taco Bell to Dave’s Super Duper. “We see the effects of plastic waste in our oceans, but we’re a little ignorant to how it gets there,” she said. “It’s the bottle or can you see clinking along down the street during a rain storm, swept into a storm drain and... into a river [that] eventually leads to the sea. And if that doesn’t make you want to change things, how about [the fact that] it just looks bad? Taking the initiative to keep our community clean sends the right message. It’s just the right thing to do.”

Jeremy Watson, the section leader for White Mills, said,”We live in an amazing corner of NEPA, and I intend to help in any way possible to keep it that way.”

You can sign up to take part at

www.bit.ly/TRR10mile

The rain date for this event is the following Saturday, April 27.

Sections and meeting places

1. Lake Region IGA to The Settlers Inn—meet Jason Merrill at Hawley Antique Exchange

2. Settler’s to Hawleywood Hills Quarry—meet Michael J. Coppola at D&H Canal Park at Lock 31

3. Hawleywood Hills to Modern Gas in White Mills—meet Jeremy Watson at Watson Brothers Inc.

4. Modern Gas to Taco Bell—meet Dan Barnes at PennDot, across from Wayne County Ford

5. Taco Bell to Dave’s Super Duper—meet Jenna Wayne Mauder at Domino’s Pizza on Route 6