More Green Up Day remembrances to share.......

Teri Emilo:
Hopefully with the public's awareness of the Earth and how important it is to keep it clean, many people will be out on Saturday cleaning up!! Happy 40th Birthday!! GREEN UP.

Connie Beal:
I believe it was Green Up 2006 that my friend, Jon Harris & I dressed up as Green Up Superheros! We were Americorps VISTAs and volunteered to play the part. We wore sparkling green wigs, spandex and the fabulous bright green t-shirt with a flowing cape. It was quite a day, hundreds of bags of trash were collected in Burlington. The green wig and spandex are now retired, but not forgotten. Every year, I get out there to green up our streets. Go green go!


Dean E. Haller:
I was a Rook at Norwich University and "was asked" to participate in Green Up Day in 1970. I do not recall the exact location we were assigned to and I really didn't understand the significance of the moment, but I was there. I left Norwich after my second year and attended Duquesne University. I married a wonderful young woman from my high school in Pennsylvania who attended Green Mountain College. We lived in Pittsburgh until returning to Vermont to raise our two young children in 1990. I now own a business, HRSentry, located in Colchester, VT. I will be participating in Green Up Day tomorrow thinking about the day and the person I was forty years ago.


Kris Rowley:
I participated in the first Green Up event. My church group was assigned Rt. 14 in East Brookfield into the Williamstown gulf. One thing that I remember finding on that day, besides tires and other trash, was a Norwich University cadet ring! It was in a box that was thrown out in one of the pull-offs in the gulf. At my young age I thought I had found the biggest treasure in the world! NU cadet rings are rather large. The adults in the group called NU and we returned the ring to the officials there. We later heard that the ring was returned to its rightful owner, who was very glad to have it back. I have participated in several Green Up events since that first one. It is a wonderful way to get outside, enjoy the beauty of our great state and do something to keep it looking that way.


Sandra Luneau Leclair:
I can remember participating in Green-up Day with my 4H group in St. Albans. My dad, who was a local dairy farmer, would hook up the manure spreader and we would clean all of Kellogg Road.


Lou Faivre:
2010 will be my 40th year volunteering for GreenUp. In 1970 my brother Allen from Connecticut was visiting on leave from the Navy and we were assigned to Route 7 in Brandon North from the Brandon Training School to the Brandon/Leicester Town Line. We ran out of bags and had to go back to the park for more. We found a lot of metal pieces from auto accidents as I remember. The Town Manager wrote a letter to my brother's CO to report his volunteer work for Vermont GreenUp.


Suzanne Babcock Dirnmaier:
I was at the first Green Up Day as a Girl Scout in the town of Barton. What I remember most was the number of bottles that we picked up. We covered a back road that ran from Barton to Orleans that obviously was a popular area to have a drink and throw out the bottle. I remember dreaming that night about picking up bottles that seemed endless. It was a tortured dream indeed. I owned until recently a plastic faux construction hat with the Green Up Day logo which we were given in the early years of green up. It was a little sad looking and when we were cleaning out my mother's house I was convinced by my sister who was less of a pack rat to part with it. She also took part in the early Green Up days.


Kathleen O'Donnell Porter:
I took part on the first Green Up Day along with my Girl Scout Troop in Bradford. We cleaned up one of the back roads in town. I saw your spot on Across The Fence. Amazing to see those paper bags!


William Eddy:
I grew up in Hinesburg and was a Senior in High School during that first Greenup Day. Several of us teenagers in town fanned out to clean up the roadsides. I was in two groups, one to clean up part of Rte 116 and another to clean up part of Pond Road. In addition to all the beer cans and bottles, I remember that we came across an axel to an old piece of farm machinery. We brought it out of the woods and waited for the town truck to haul it away.


Susan Bourne Laskaris:
I grew up in Burlington and was 12 in 1970. I was recovering from a broken leg, still on crutches. My family and I helped to clean up the cloverleaf entrance to Burlington. Every time I take exit 14W I think of that day. A great experience and a very fond memory. I'm just glad that it stays pretty clean to this day!


Cindy (Reeves) Fountain:
Greetings! I, too participated in the first Green Up Day in 1970. Our church youth group from the Congregational Church in Hartford Village, Vermont filled up a farm flat bed with the youth group. We were given green bags and I remember just how much we picked up. Of course, this was long before the days of nickle deposits. I also remember the fun, the pride of doing something worthwhile and the beauty of the state.
I had just had this discussion with my husband Norman and he didn't quite believe me when I told him the interstate was shut down. Thanks for verifying my memory.


Lisa Rivolta:
I lived in South Burlington and I picked up trash along I-189. As I remember it now I am amazed that they did close the interstates...I moved to Massachusetts after college but did participate several years when I was up here on vacation. Since moving back to South Burlington I have started participating again.