Church volunteers clean two-mile stretch of Montana 200
BOB AND Kathy Gregg stand beside Montana 200, picking up trash beside the longest state highway in Montana. (Douglas Wilks/Clark Fork Valley Press)
Wednesday, March 29 was rainy and cold, which was a typical spring day for Plains and Sanders County. What is not typical on a spring day is seeing nine or ten people on the side of the highway picking up trash and putting it into large black colored plastic trash bags. Who are they? Why are they out there in the rain, walking or standing beside the longest and busiest state highway in Montana?
They are members of the Plains and Paradise United Methodist Church, who have adopted a two-mile stretch of the highway to clean each spring. They were out on both sides of Montana Highway 200 picking up the litter and other trash from the weigh station all the way to the Henry Creek Road, roughly two miles east of Plains. The filled trash bags were tied and located just off the highway to be picked up later that same day.
“Shirley King organized this and she promised that we would have good weather today.” Kathy Gregg said with a laugh and a smile on her face just after she and her husband Bob walked across the highway.
A few cars did slow down as they saw people moving behind the guardrails, perhaps wondering what was happening and if they were injured or if something else was happening.
The ten people who took on the task of cleaning this portion of the highway were Bob and Kathy Gregg, Shirley King, Ilene Madden, Norm and Nancy Lazor, Cindy Moore, Cliff and Judy Stephens and Lyla Sears.
Reporter Douglas Wilks can be reached at dwilks@vp-mi.com or 406-826-3402.