RELEASE: CONTACT:

IMMEDIATE Sande Snead 804-225-4491 Sande.Snead@VirginiaDOT.org Donna Purcell Mayes 804-786-2717

CO-0439 Sept. 3, 2004

VIRGINIA'S STATEWIDE FALL ROADSIDE CLEANUP SET FOR SEPT. 18
Adopt-a-Highway volunteers will be out in force for annual event

RICHMOND – Look out for bright orange vests and trash bags on Sat., Sept. 18, when Adopt-a-Highway volunteers will be out cleaning up our Commonwealth’s roadsides.

Managed by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), Adopt-a-Highway gives Virginians an opportunity to show their community spirit by working together to beautify the Commonwealth. Virginia has one of the largest Adopt-a-Highway programs in the country. Approximately 6,000 volunteer groups and individuals maintain about 13,250 miles, or one-fourth of the state-maintained highways.

Virginia’s Adopt-a-Highway program, now in its 16th year, provides volunteers with safety vests, orange bags and road signs recognizing the adopting individual or group by name. Volunteers agree to pick up litter along a two-mile stretch of roadway four times per year for two years.

Every state and several countries have Adopt-a-Highway or roadside cleanup programs. The effort started in a Texas Department of Transportation field office in 1985.

For more information on Adopt-a-Highway, call 1-800-PRIDE VA (1-800-774-3382) or visit http://www.virginiadot.org/programs/prog-aah-default.asp.