Whitney Lewis slowly makes her way through some brambles near the Kentucky River in Jessamine County and aims her litter pickup tool called a Grappler for a beer can. She puts it in a small plastic bag.
Once the bag is full, Whitney starts with another one and fills it up with litter. She estimates that in the last three years, she’s taken 27,000 bags of trash out of Kentucky woods, roadsides, and lakes.
“It started as an Earth Day Challenge. I'd always picked up trash when I was out and about, and, you know, just a bag or two, because I'd be out there and I'd be collecting nature's treasures. So, I felt like, you know, the least I could do is take a bag with me and also clean up and give back while I was there.”
The Earth Day challenge in 2023 started with a goal of 500 bags and grew to 750. And she hasn’t stopped since then. Her Facebook photos and videos have encouraged others to join her quest to clean up Kentucky.
“Oh, wow, we hit a million bags last year. And I honestly, I thought it had taken us three years to hit that one-million bags. And I got to looking back, we did a million bags in one year's time last year, which is amazing. That's all; over eight thousand people contributed bags to the movement. I mean, it's grown hugely. I'm getting mail from Utah and Washington State. I mean, it has touched lives in other states as well. It's amazing. Never in a million years would I have dreamt.”
Whitney started a nonprofit with a website at cleanerky.org where she shares pictures and takes donations to support her litter pickup.
“I'm very grateful and blessed. Kentucky has been so supportive of what I do. And they do donate frequently, and I'm thankful because I couldn't do it without that. I do also collect driftwood at the rivers and stuff, and I sell that at reptile shows to fund the cleanups as well. So, I found other outlets, you know, because I want to keep going at whatever cost, so I'll find unique ways of making the money to fund to clean them up.”
In 2023, Whitney won the Governor’s Award for “Beautify the Bluegrass.” People voted through the Kentucky Living magazine.
“It literally spoke straight to my heart. That is something that is voted and my fellow Kentuckians saw the importance of my work, and it touched my heart. I mean, I cried because, you know, for the longest time, everybody's like, what are you doing? This whole mother nature thing? I'm like, I don't know. I really don't. I just know that it's in my heart to be out doing what I'm doing.”
The award was started by Kentucky Electric Cooperatives to recognize people in the state who improve their community through cleanup projects. Joe Arnold with Kentucky Electric Cooperatives says they’re taking nominations now through July 20th on kentuckyliving.com.
“We ended up finding all these people that were not getting any recognition at all for just doing homegrown public improvements. It might have been a litter cleanup or a stream cleanup. Sometimes it was renovating a main street or turning a vacant lot into a public park. And these people are doing it, obviously not for recognition or for awards. They're doing it because they love their community and their families and their homes.”
It’s the 10th year of the Beautify the Bluegrass award, and Arnold encourages people to submit nominees with before and after pictures. Five finalists will be selected, and then people can vote for a winner who will be announced in the Fall.
Lewis is dreaming big about her litter clean-up.
“I want to take it to a national level. There are so many other people in other states that are wanting to contribute to the count. So, I believe I'm going to make a five-million bag goal this year, and I'm going to open it up to the whole country, because these people want to get involved, and why not give them a way to do that? You know, can you imagine the difference we could make if everybody walked outside and picked up one, just one, grocery bag of trash? It would be life-changing, you know, for our planet and for the generations to come.”
In snow, rain, and sweltering heat, one woman is making a difference in her state and beyond.
“I love it. I love it. I love being out in Mother Nature by myself. It is the only thing I want to do is get out there and clean up. I mean it, and it comes from something much greater than me, because it doesn't make sense, especially in the rain and the yucky weather. But I mean, I live for it.”
