It's that time of year again - time to get your gloves, put on your old clothes and shoes and do a little spring cleaning. I invite all of you to join a community Foreign Object Debris - FOD - walk at 4 p.m. on Tuesday.
We will walk shoulder to shoulder as a community through fields and ditches north of the major retailer area in the east section of Fort Dodge and pick up the trash. We can have a huge impact in a short amount of time. It will take many of us because the task is a large one. It will be a dirty job and probably not too pleasant - trash rarely is. You may have to clean your shoes when we are done because they will be covered in rich black Iowa soil.
Will it be worth it? Of course it will. Will it last forever? Unfortunately, the answer is ''no.'' The false thinking is that it's someone else's job to clean up our community.
It takes all of us to make different choices.
Make a choice to not litter.
Make a choice to say something and discourage others you know to stop littering.
Fact Box
At a glance
What: ''FOD'' Pickup Day
When: 4 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Meet in the northwest corner of the Wal-Mart parking lot. Bring your gloves and wear your old clothes and shoes.
Make a choice to pick up trash instead of walking around it.
Make a choice to keep your property picked up.
You don't have to have a lot of money to pick up trash and junk on your property - it's a choice. Studies have shown that areas which are clean and without trash are more likely to stay that way.
I applaud those in our community who continuously pick up litter at their businesses, their residences, a public park, or simply when out on a walk. Thank you for caring. You really do make a difference. Littering - it truly is beneath us in every sense of the word.
Rhonda Chambers is a member of the Image Committee of the Fort Dodge Area Chamber of Commerce.