The community cleanup activists of Towamensing Trails Community gathered to collect litter from the main roads Saturday morning.

Community members Carla Benckert, Ray Kadingo, and Stacy Venetos of the Advisory and Planning commission led the event with Patrick Craig, director of Towamensing Trails Property Association. More than 40 Towamensing Trails Community members worked to collect the trash lining the roadsides.Towamensing Trails Community is located in Albrightsville and contains about 2,200 homes with 600 full-time residents.The cleanup event has been running twice a year for over six years with the first event in October, followed by one in May. Though the efforts started six years ago it wasn't until recently that the community clean started to build up steam.In late March Benckert was fed up with the sight of trash that had been strewn about Old Stage Road. Benckert wrote a letter to state Rep. Doyle Heffley about her concerns for the environment she was living in."I thought who was I to contact a state representative, but it worked. I don't think people know they can do that."Within a short time Heffley's office called and set up a meeting with her.On April 9, Benckert, Kadingo, and nine other community members attended the meeting to discuss the litter problem."Once Heffley got involved it was like, poof magic," Benckert said.Old Stage Road was cleaned up that week.Heffley encouraged Benckert to contact the county commissioners to speak further on her environmental concerns. After the conversation with the commissioners, Benckert felt encouraged to continue her efforts.With a committee organized, the next step was to register with Keep America Beautiful. They were assigned an ID number and provided with the necessary vest, gloves and bags from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.Benckert is quick to point out that the credit for this undertaking has to be shared by all."It really is a whole village of people, I'm one of many," she said.Venetos said the community coming together in this cleanup has "made a difference.""We prefer to be pro-active rather than reactive."The community also started an Adopt A Road program and recently Venetos has begun to organize a lake preservation committee.Litter was a huge problem when Kadingo moved in over six years ago. He took pictures of the littered roads that he sent to the board. He picked up three bags in his first year.Afterward Kadingo and Benckert joined forces. The two were put on a community committee to get the cleanup ball rolling. Kadingo stated that once the board was behind the effort that it really began to take off."The first year we had fewer than 40 people and collect 250 bags of trash. This event we have over 40 people and collected more bags."A strong sense of community and accomplishment surrounded the pavilion as the event came to a close and all looked forward to the next event in October.For more information on how to get involved in the Keep America Beautiful, Great Clean Up Act of Pennsylvania visit keeppabeautiful.org.