Several times each year dozens of our members take part in cleaning a portion of one of our local roads.

Rich Whipple Adopt-A-Road Coordinator

On Saturday, July 18, fifteen of our VVA and AVVA members merged together to tackle the Joy Road Clean Up.

We had favorable weather, and enjoyed the Meijer donuts and the camaraderie. Thanks to all who participated!

Those in attendance were, from left to right: Jack Massarello, Al (Golfer of the week) Sneath, Marcel "Sky Pilot" Loosbrock, Pat "all world" Doherty, myself, Bob "a lot of irons in the fire" Lamoureux, Susi "Travel Agent" Wagner, Bryan "the editor" Bentley, Bobby "Go Blue" Sommerville, John "el Presidento" Spencer, Dennis "karaoke" Waling, Larry "DNR" Kilgore, Terry "Harley Davison" Wells, Mike "a friend to all" Dicker, and lastly Greg Kremkow, who always come to this agenda with a smile and rolled up sleeves.

Our next scheduled clean up will be on Saturday morning, October 10.

 

To start off our chapter's 18th year of keeping Joy Road clean, fifteen brave souls came out on Saturday morning, April 25. The weather was cloudy, slightly breezy, and about 43 degrees, and the ground was damp from some rain the night before. Most of us dug into the fresh made Meijer doughnuts, and we donned our sexy lime green Wayne County issued safety vests. Pat Doherty showed up, keeping him in first place for the "All World" pick up team. Pat rarely misses and his attendance is definitely appreciated.

We had three newcomers ("rookies") attend, Roger Riddell, Skip Davison, and Bryan Bentley. Thanks for coming out and being a part of this well oiled machine. It was also an awesome sight to see Gary "Ouch" Boucher once again be a part of our group. It was Ouch that came up with the idea of using the "trash picker upper", which most of us enjoy (Bob Lamoureux has a good back, and he actually bends over to pick up the stuff!). Ouch was in the hospital just six days prior to the pick up.

The picture was taken at the UAW Hall's Military Memorial featuring the five branches of the service along with a huge flag pole and large American flag. Those in the picture, from left to right are: Skip Davison, Pat Doherty, Joe Tebor, Terry Wells, Roger Riddell, Larry Kilgore, Don McLane, Norma Demerly, Ron (past president) King, Rich Whipple, Gregg Kremkow, Bob Lamoureux (Bob was on the first Joy Road clean up back on April 12, 1997), Gary "Ouch" Boucher, Roger Buelow (usually Roger takes off before the picture, but I threatened him with 50 push ups and a mile run, so he wisely stayed for the picture), and last but certainly not least, Bryan Bentley, our chapter’s current AVVA President, who sacrificed himself not being in the picture, by taking the snap shot of our illustrious trash team!

Here is the list of VVA members that participated in our first Adopt-A-Road assignment back on April 12, 1997. Current chapter president John Spencer, Gary Estermyer, Dale Luebke, Roger Bebow, Al Dorey, Don Dignan, Bill Gravett, Bob Lamoureux, Dennis Shrewsbury, Franz Brenner, Rick (Señor) Popa, and Tim Greenhoot. Little did we know that 18 years later, we’re still happily serving the community in this endeavor!!!

Rich Whipple
Adopt-A-Road Coordinator

Many thanks go out to Larry Kilgore, who accepted the “supervisor” position for our chapter’s last Clean Up of the year. This allowed Karen and I to head up north and get some quality time together!

Larry even bought the donuts (Bob Dew, please reimburse Larry), and sacrificed himself not being in the picture because he was behind the camera. Now that is some kind of sacrifice!

Thank you for the thirteen that showed up for the road crew. Once again, Roger Buelow was “quick out of the box” and he and his wife (or daughter?) Trudy, along with Norma Demerly took off to conquer Joy Road before the picture was taken.

The others that were in attendance: Don Shannon, Jim Harvey, Pat Doherty (Pat’s becoming another “all world” trooper like Forrest Manly was) Joe Tebor, Don Dignan (with donut in his mouth), Mark Grzesiek, Dan Droz, Bob Bryan (nice to have you, Robert!), “el presidento” Ron King, and Al Sneath.

This completes our seventeenth year (began in 1997) that Chapter 528 has made an impact in our community.