'Red, White & Litter': Thousands Gathered, Hundreds Left Behind Their Dirty Print

Salisbury, MD—As thousands of people gathered at James M. Bennett High School for the 'Red, White & Boom' 4th of July festivities Sunday night, local volunteers woke up to its aftermath--a campus filled with trash.

From cups, plastic utensils, soda cans, old French Fries and popcorn, to all sorts of wrappers and TNT Pop-Its leftover cartons, trash was seen scattered early Monday on the bleachers, on the field and in multiple parking lots surrounding the school.

Craig Faunce, also known as the popular 'clean-up guy' in Salisbury planned his 172nd clean-up day, days in advance, still on his mission to make Salisbury the cleanest city in the nation.

Faunce said he was pleasantly surprised when he showed up Monday morning to find that the trash roaming around the high school wasn't nearly as much as what he had anticipated.

“This isn't looking too bad considering how many people were here, there was thousands and thousands of people here, so they did pretty good; this looks like a regular parking lot anywhere,” he said.

Brian Nelson, co-chair of the annual 'Red, White & Boom event said the fireworks show was a huge success.

“We had eight food trucks here last night," he said. 'We think we had about, over 2,000 people just in the vicinity of the football field here, but we think that in the surrounding areas we had over five- to 6,000 people in the surrounding area being able to see the fireworks show.”

Nelson said that part of that success in eliminating some of the possible litter was the fact that organizers were well-prepared, placing at least 20 trash cans around the facility. He emphasized that the free event is made possible thanks to the organizers and the community support.

Regardless, 11-year old Dylan Maine said he has noticed trash on the floor for years now when he first learned about what littering meant.

He, alongside his mother, was a volunteer Monday morning who said picking up trash is easy and a way to give back after the event gave the Salisbury community such a memorable 4th of July night.

“I always see trash but we’ve picked it up for maybe like a couple of years now, it's been like a couple years I've known about it but I just like to help,” he said.

Faunce hoped more volunteers would pop in and out throughout the day, always enthusiastic to meet more locals who want to help out.

Those wishing to contribute and join Craig Faunce on his clean-up adventures, can contact him via his Facebook page; his next massive clean-up event, which consists of large groups, will be on July 10. Volunteers are told to gather between 9-10 a.m. at Kellyn's Kafe.

Click here to donate to the Community Foundation who organizes free community events such as the annual 'Red, White & Boom' show.

https://www.wrde.com/story/44243563/red-white-and-litter-thousands-gathered-hundreds-left-behind-their-dirty-print