Island County’s Adopt-A-Road program is seeking more volunteers to roll up their sleeves and help tame the trash and weeds along local roads.

The county provides safety training for crew leaders, portable warning signs, hard hats, safety vests, grabbers for the trash and labeled disposable bags so volunteers won’t be charged for them. The Worker’s Compensation Act covers medical treatment for any injured volunteers.

Volunteers are a “workforce multiplier because we only have 12 people in each of the road shops to perform each of the functions of the road,” County Engineer Ed Sewester said. “We are stretched thin.”

Samantha Nell, the coordinator for the Adopt-A-Road program, detailed the process of being a volunteer. Solo or group volunteers call to schedule equipment pickup, and they station across different road districts collecting trash and weeding. Often, volunteers are also military-affiliated, Nell said. Currently, there are a total of 29 active Adopt-A-Road volunteer groups; some have as many as 20 members.

“They always have a can-do attitude about going out and picking up trash on our road,” Nell said excitedly.

One 78-year-old volunteer, Madeline Rose, has been with the Adopt-A-road Program since 2018, but she’s been picking up litter on Whidbey for over 30 years.

“I just started picking up litter on my own on the roadside, and I was paying for the disposal of the recycling materials and even sorting them out when I brought them there to the Oak Harbor Recycling Center for Island County,” Rose said.

She was first interested in the Adopt-A-Road program because it offered to pay for the recycling materials. Rose regularly cleans up on North Whidbey roads and along Highway 20 in spots where there is no coverage from WSDOT. Her adopted roads have signs saying “Eagle Chief” and “Friends of North Whidbey.”

“It’s a very rewarding program, and my neighbors know who I am and they come out and thank me. They give me gift cards for a restaurant in town and tips as well,” Rose said.

People frequently slow their cars on busy roads to thank her for her service.

“It just gives me a wonderful feeling that you know that they also care,” Rose said.

Active volunteers are required to do roadside clean-ups three times a year. But Rose puts in as many days as she can, often working nearly every day of the month.

“We have an increasing population, and the litter has just gotten worse as time has gone on,” Rose said.

Along with litter, Rose also uses a hoe to dig up tansy in people’s fields, since the plant is poisonous to cattle and horses. As an animal and nature lover, Rose wants to keep everything healthy.

“There are more and more groups that are going out on North Whidbey and I like to think that they saw me out there and thought, well, maybe we could do that too,” Rose said.

Interested volunteers can call the Island County Public Works Department at 360-679-7331.