BARNEGAT – Adopt-A-Street, a local cleanup program, held their largest event removing trash from 53 streets in Barnegat.
The Adopt-A-Street Program held one of their largest town-wide cleanups to date. The program focuses on community involvement from youth, adults and local businesses. Prospective volunteers complete applications indicating the streets they want to adopt and a town waiver. Many organizations such as cub scouts, boy scouts, girl scouts, businesses, families and more all come out to clean their neighborhood.
The Adopt-A-Street Program was created back in 2019 by two Barnegat High School students, Nora Hansen and Jenna Marcy, who were cleaning the neighborhood on Earth Day.
“During Earth Day in 2019, myself and Jenna Marcy cleaned up the streets in our neighborhood. We came up with a plan to help clean up additional streets and keep garbage out of Barnegat Bay protecting ocean wildlife and the environment,” Hansen said. “I reached out to (at the time) Dunfee School Counselor Michele Cucinotta for helping us put the process into motion. She has been a great force in guiding us and encourages us. We knew we had a great idea that could work, but we didn’t know exactly how to go about putting it in motion.”
They informed superintendent Dr. Brian Latwis, who really supported their idea, and created a proposal to present at a Township Committee meeting.
“The residents at the meeting were so wonderful and commended us to make the change. It was at this meeting the first resident of Barnegat signed up and Emerson Lane was officially adopted,” Hansen said.
On October 17, 2019, the township held an official ribbon cutting ceremony with the superintendent of schools, the mayor, Cucinotta, Hansen and Marcy marking the launch of the program.
The program held its first town-wide cleanup on November 2, 2019. Shortly after, the team welcomed on a third student, Skylar Dasti, to help take on the administrative tasks.
After successfully holding a small number of town-wide cleanups, everything had to be halted in March of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There were so many masks and trash littered on the streets. We reached out Councilman (Alfonso) Cirulli and Mrs. Cucinotta to discuss bringing back Adopt-A-Street cleanups but with new guidelines. We proposed residents to complete individual cleanups while following safety protocols. This successfully continued through the summer of 2020,” Hansen said.
Although the original Adopt-A-Street cleanups were delayed, when the program was finally able to start up again this year it was their biggest cleanup yet. As their first cleanup of 2021, the program had expanded to 203 members and 55 streets adopted. They had over 50 bags of trash and a lot of other debris to be picked up by public works.
“Each event we get more people registered and involved. The volunteers and the people that support us is what makes this successful. It’s a plan that has come together nicely with the support of so many and we are very grateful,” Hansen said.
