No time to waste: Volunteers 'Keep Wareham Beautiful'
Steeve Roux picks up garbage on Doty Street in Wareham on Saturday, April 11. Photos by Mari Huglin 
Volunteers of all ages helped at the event. 
Volunteers met at Town Hall for equipment.
Cassie Williams and Jordan Johnson helped pick up garbage. 
Volunteers gathered across Wareham to pick up litter. 
Matt Buckingham throws bags of trash into bins. 
The volunteers threw garabge into donated dumpsters. 
18-year-old Jordan Johnson spent the morning picking up litter.
Bags were full of trash from litter pickup. 
Volunteers kept Wareham clean. 
Doty Street was filled with garbage. 
A dumpster was full of furniture all from Doty Street. 
Crews were picking up garbage all morning. 
Grabbers and gloves were avaliable for volunteers. 
The team planned where to pick up litter next.
Steeve Roux picks up garbage on Doty Street in Wareham on Saturday, April 11. Photos by Mari Huglin
Volunteers of all ages helped at the event.
Volunteers met at Town Hall for equipment.
Cassie Williams and Jordan Johnson helped pick up garbage.
Volunteers gathered across Wareham to pick up litter.
Matt Buckingham throws bags of trash into bins.
The volunteers threw garabge into donated dumpsters.
18-year-old Jordan Johnson spent the morning picking up litter.
Bags were full of trash from litter pickup.
Volunteers kept Wareham clean.
Doty Street was filled with garbage.
A dumpster was full of furniture all from Doty Street.
Crews were picking up garbage all morning.
Grabbers and gloves were avaliable for volunteers.
The team planned where to pick up litter next.
Over 50 residents joined the movement to pick up litter with the goal of keeping Wareham beautiful on Saturday, April 11.
Organizer Cassie Williams recently introduced “Keep Wareham Beautiful” as a chapter of the statewide “Keep Massachusetts Beautiful” nonprofit. After dealing with a death in the family, she wanted to focus her time on making her community better.
In the morning, volunteers met at Wareham Town Hall to pick up equipment and snacks for the day. They were then assigned to 1 of 5 sites around Wareham. Williams encouraged participants to pick up litter in their neighborhoods too.
Williams said that the event not only helps beautify Wareham, but it builds community simultaneously. Williams hopes to host up to four events a year and focus on community building.
“It's so easy to spiral and get lost in negative thoughts so let's just get outside, enjoy the good weather and clean up the place where we live,” Williams said.
Wareham Select Board member Joey Still attended the event. As the director of the “Don’t Trash Wareham” group, he and Williams worked together to host this event.
Still said he has worked with Matt Buckingham who has organized cleanups of Wareham, specifically on Doty Street, before. Still was amazed by all the garbage that had piled up a year after they cleaned the street.
“When we did all of that it looked great, we had this good kind of spirit about it and it was clean for a while but 365 days later to see it like this— it’s heartbreaking,” Still said.
Still said he enjoyed the physical side of picking up litter but also building community and inspiring others to get involved.
“You see somebody doing something nice, you love to help them out with it and that builds community— there's no other better way to do it,” Still said.
Steeve Roux has been involved with clean up groups for the past few years. He said he was invited by Buckingham.
Roux hopes people will stop throwing garbage from their car and said he wanted his kids to practice leaving spaces better than how they found it.
“I’m just trying to keep this planet clean and show the kids the same thing— respect yourself and where you live,” Roux said.
