ALLEGAN COUNTY, Mich — A lot of people talk about what to give back to their community, but very few people do anything about it.
That's not the case for the Allegan County Lakeshore Clean Up group, who are actually out and getting their hands dirty.
“We just got tired of seeing trash everywhere,” said James Dyer, who started the 501c3, “Dirty diapers, about the worst thing we find out here.”
Most days of the week, you can find him and some volunteers road or lakeside, picking up trash.
“You might throw something out of the window, but you're talking hundreds of cars a day that goes down here, and you have 10 people, you know, every day that does this. It adds up every day,” said Dyer.
The Allegan County Lake Shore Cleanup group is James’ answer to that problem, and his attempt to make a difference.
WATCH BELOW: JAMES SHARES THE STRANGEST THING HE'S FOUND WHILE CLEANING UP TRASH:
“People don't understand what, how they're destroying our environment, our wildlife, and the habits that we have out here, and our wildlife get tangled up in the fishing line and stuff that everybody's leaving land around, and they don't even understand that, you know, they probably don't even realize when they're just leaving it laying right there, what it can do and but this is something that we put together, and we just want to get our county cleaned up," James explained.
That can be a lot of work, and it’s not easy.
“The hardest thing is getting rid of our stuff, getting rid of what we collect up and pick up," James said. "That's the hardest thing is 'getting rid of,' because dumping fees is couches and chairs and beds, all. That's $20 a piece alone right there, besides our dumping trash, and it's hard for you know, what we do is fund ourselves to make this happen.”
Jams told me they do get some help from Cheshire, Lee, and Trowbridge Townships, but he can still use more.
“There's just, there's a lot we do. We're out here every day, and all this trash adds up every day.”
If you would like to reach out to James, give him a call at 269-650-0654 or email, allegancountylakeshorecleanup@gmail.com.
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