Clean Up Wilkes: Keeping our Foothills Beautiful

Clean Up Wilkes: Keeping our Foothills Beautiful

We all love the sparkling clear waters of Kerr Scott Reservoir, the green hills of the Brushy Mountains, and the pastoral fields dotted with black and white cows around Wilkesboro. Everywhere you turn in Wilkes County you see the beauty of the natural world all around. But if you look closely, you might also see plastic bottles floating along the Yadkin River, fast food containers along the roadside and other forms of trash littering our scenic byways.

Clean Up Wilkes, an organization started by Cindy Mittet, is working hard to eliminate that trash and help keep the landscape around Wilkes County just as beautiful as it can be.

Clean Up Wilkes got its start with a big clean-up project in May 2019, but the idea had been brewing long before that. After years of picking up trash along Highway 268 near her property, North Carolina Wilderness Lodge, Cindy Mittet decided to do something to help improve the situation in Wilkes County. When she moved here from Florida seventeen years ago, it was the beauty of the area that drew her here and helped her decide to make Wilkesboro her home, and that passion helps fuel her desire to keep the landscape clean.

“I would go out to the highway by our lodge picking up trash, but there always seemed to be more that needed to be done than I could do with just me and my boys,” Cindy says. “Then one day I saw a picture on Facebook someone had posted of the lake, and there were bottles and trash floating in the water, and I just thought to myself, ‘something has got to be done.’”

Cindy organized a meeting at the YMCA to get input from others in the community and figure out a plan. She teamed up with Michele Whalen, whose writing and graphic design talents complemented Cindy’s organizational skills, and the two started a brand new organization – Clean Up Wilkes.

The clean up project held in early 2019 sparked a movement that has continued to grow. Sally and Michele have held other clean up events, and their passion has inspired others in the county to host events too. There have been Clean Up Wilkes events out at Kerr Scott dam, along 268 near the intersection of 421, and in Traphill where the volunteers from the fire station and Brian Minton, county commissioner, helped out.

How You Can Help Clean Up Wilkes

Thanks to Cindy, the movement is growing to clean up Wilkes. Everyone can be a part, and with more people on board the job only gets easier.

• Spread the word: Clean Up Wilkes’ mascot, Wendell the Possum, is doing his part to help get people to clean up around Wilkes County. Help Wendell out by telling your friends and neighbors to keep their property clean.
• Join the Clean Up community. Follow Clean Up Wilkes on their Facebook page to stay up to date with what the group is doing and join in local clean-up events.
• Organize your own event. All it takes is a few people and some trash bags! Brian Hamby at the DOT will help get supplies for a trash pick-up event, and then send crews to pick up the bags from the side of the road when you’re done.
• Do your part. You don’t have to organize a big event. All it takes is everyone cleaning up their own property to make Wilkes a cleaner place.

“It’s not just about picking up the litter, it’s about making the world a better place,” Cindy says. “When we all work together, we can help keep Wilkes beautiful.”