ROCHESTER, N.Y. — You don’t have to go far to find litter around Rochester, from sidewalks to roadsides — even in front yards. Now, one nonprofit, “Walk for Rochester,” is bringing together the community to clean up the city and surrounding region, one block at a time.

On the corner of East Avenue and Winton Road it is busy, it is loud and most importantly it is dirty. But that’s where one organization called Walking for Rochester is coming in. They’re doing their part to help clean up the city and the surrounding areas.

“Our mission is to organize businesses in neighborhoods to eliminate litter within their communities,” said Matt Apple, founder of Walk for Rochester.

Armed with nothing but an orange bucket and a trash picker, these volunteers spend one hour in high-traffic areas doing their part to make Rochester just a little prettier. And it’s all organized by co-founder and CEO Matt Apple.

“So litter is the catalyst that shows our unity as a community because it affects us all evenly. No matter what your background is, whether your political affiliations are, it affects everyone the same. And this is a great way for everyone to come out and show that they too care about their home,” Apple said.

Walking for Rochester picks up trash twice a week from April to September. Now, after nearly three seasons, Apple’s group is close to hitting a major milestone: one total ton of litter picked up.

“Right now, we are at 1,814 pounds on the nose, and we’re hoping to break that the one-ton mark this season,” said Apple.

But Apple can’t do it alone — he’s helped by volunteers like Patrick Lynch.

“It’s very nice after doing something where, you know, it’s been trash and it just looks terrible and yeah, you do that and you drive by maybe the next day and like you can tell a difference and you hope that your community can tell a difference as well…the community definitely does appreciate it. We get a lot of people who say thank you, they’ll stop us and stop their car even, just like yell out the window, say ‘thanks for doing it,'” said Patrick Lynch, a volunteer.

Walking for Rochester is now just 61 pounds away from hitting their one-ton goal of trash collected. And with two events left in the season, they feel pretty confident in reaching that goal.

If you’d like to volunteer at the next “Walking for Rochester” cleanup, two more events are planned this season:

• One on Saturday from 2 to 3 p.m. on South Clinton and Meigs Street in Rochester.
• Another on Sunday afternoon from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at East Henrietta and Calkins roads in Henrietta

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