INDIANAPOLIS -- Zack McGill couldn’t help but notice all the trash during his evening stroll Monday along the B & O Trail.
“I filled [one bag] almost all the way up just walking a quarter mile of this trail here,” McGill said.
The trash bags were packed with beer cans, cups and plastic wrappers.
“I’m just tired of seeing garbage everywhere,” McGill said.
The 25-year-old father of two was so fed up that he began picking up the trash around the city himself, to the point where he ran out of bags.
So he penned this message on Facebook in early September:
I'm sick of looking at garbage. You're sick of looking at garbage. I'm gonna go out and pick it up. I need some money for buckets, gloves, a bright orange vest so nobody hits me with a car, a bunch of trash bags, disposal costs, the more I get, the more I can accomplish. And the more people I can bring in to help. If you don't have any money to help me clean up our roads, neighborhoods, parks, rivers and creeks, etc, then help me with your time. Contact me and we'll get together and start something better than we have today.
"Orange vests, pop up trash cans, obviously a bulk of trash cans,” McGill said, listing what he hopes to purchase with donation money that began pouring in via Facebook.
Across town on Indy's east side, another young man, Montez Williams, had the same idea.
He started the A.C.E. project to fight blight.
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So what made Williams want to do something about the blight in the city?
“Because we need it,“ Williams said.
He also believes the city needs more summer jobs for the youth.
Williams says cleaning up abandoned properties and beautifying old lots will give children a sunnier, somewhat brighter outlook about the community they live in.
"If we just treat it like trash, then they're going to treat it like trash," Williams said. "We have to make sure our neighborhoods look nice. Don’t nobody want to live in trash, you get to feeling like trash."
So far he’s worked with about a half-dozen kids to fix up abandoned homes and trails. He's currently collecting donations to expand the A.C.E. project to include transportation and a literacy program.
Both programs are year-round and both are looking for more volunteers. To help out, you can email Williams at aceproject42@gmail.com or you can visit McGill’s Facebook group the One World Initiative- OWI to learn more about what you can do to help.
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