19 Sep Trash Pickup

Pictures by Skip Surre Write-up by Steve & Susan Ochs

The morning of October 19th turned out to be cool.  As we headed to our trash pickup location at 101 Pecan in Schertz, we ran into some small rain showers.  When we approached the meeting place we were met by Ken & Connie Jordan, Gary & Melissa Skorman.  In a few minutes Steve & Donna Van Gilder and Court Van Sickler arrived on their bikes in the heaviest downpour.  Everyone was anxious to get started so we started handing out vests and bags when Archie & Sharon Haley drove up.  We handed everyone a trash picker.  We were ready to head out.  Some stayed close to the meeting spot and started their duties.  Steve and I took Gary & Melissa and headed to the other end of our stretch of highway.  As we head down their are several bikes heading up the road that had met at YOSA.  Among those coming from YOSA were:  Guy Custer, Skip Surre, Bob & Kay Finch (our new California friends), and John McClinton.  Ken was quick to take them to a spot to start collecting trash.  Dave Weaver, Josh Weaver, Ruthie Gilmore and Kyle Nutter came out to help out where needed.  J D & Mille Kvapil, and Jack Dowda arrived and were quickly carted off to start in another area. 
 
The traffic was heavy today due to soccer matches going on off a neighboring road.  The carting of people and supplies became rather hectic at times because the traffic was starting to jam in one area.  But after two hours we were done with our area of highway clean up.  We had a rather large pile left at our sign that the state will need to pick up.

After we were done, we discussed where to go and eat breakfast.  The Ranch House in St. Hedwig was the choice made and everyone except Guy Custer and Steve & Donna Van Gilder (who had other obligations) headed out to fuel our stomachs.  The chapter bought breakfast due to the fact that we had 22 wonderful people show up in the rain and never once complained about picking up trash.  It is more than we had expected and we feel honored that they shared in this community service project with us.  Thanks to Jack and Ken who provided water and the service of taking people to different spots. 
 
Our grabbers seemed to work pretty well.  We know that one broke and we heard that another got stuck at times but they really made to work a lot simplier than bending over and picking up trash.  It was harder to pick up some things due to the rainfall we had that morning but we did collect a lot of garbage.  Some of the cars stopped and thanked us for what we were doing and others honked and gave us a thumbs up.  We know that the community really appreciates what we have done and driving back down later in the day, the difference was very noticeable.  
 
Chapter U members thank you so much for all you have done to make our community projects a huge success.  Without each and everyone of you we would not have been able to complete this huge project.  

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