Don’t Trash Wareham isn’t just the name of a group of volunteers dedicated to beautifying the town, it’s also a rallying cry.

“It’s important to take pride in your community,” said Judy Whiteside, one of the group's founding members. “People talk about the ‘broken window theory,’ we’re not fixing broken windows, but there’s a big difference when you're driving down a clean road instead of one filled with trash.”

On Saturday and Sunday, more than 420 people were hard at work cleaning roadsides, parks and other properties as part of a volunteer-driven effort. Now in its fourth year, Don’t Trash Wareham's town wide clean up saw residents hit the streets with trash bags, gloves and trash grabbers in tow. Teams of people that included Pop Warner football players, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, firefighters and Selectmen worked to clean up streets and beaches all across town.

At the Narrows, Don’t Trash Wareham founding members, Selectman Mary Bruce and Whiteside, filled trash bags near the rail crossing. In addition to Bruce and Whiteside, the group’s founding members include Selectman Alan Slavin, Nora Bicki and Jaime Rebhan.

Whiteside said the group has attracted many more volunteers over the past four years. While teams were encouraged to register with Don’t Trash Wareham, the effort is loosely organized and anyone was encouraged to head out with a trash bag in hand to help pitch in.

At Little Harbor Beach, members of Girl Scout Troop 75815 combed the sand, parking lot and marsh for garbage.

This was the first year the troop’s youngest girls, the kindergarten-aged Daisies, helped out, said one of the troop’s leaders, Renee Sullivan. However, this was the third year older girls have participated in the town wide clean up.

And they were glad to help.

“We’re doing this today for the animals,” said Girl Scout Samantha Baptiste. “And if the animals could talk, they would say, ‘thank you.’”