Trash Talk
by Chris Chance
As you spend time in parks across the state this summer, I’d like to remind you all to help keep YOUR parks clean. Like other parks and recreation departments across the state, we spend a great deal of time and effort to maintain our ball fields, landscaping, and other facilities so players, coaches and fans can enjoy their time at the ballpark.
Most recreation employees I know take a great deal of pride in keeping
their facilities in the best shape possible. We are always striving to
make sure that garbage cans are readily available throughout our
facilities and that the bags are changed regularly so that there’s no
overflow. We even try to periodically move through the crowd picking up
loose trash, my theory being that if you throw trash down and an
employee immediately picks it up, you’ll be shamed into finding a trash
can next time.
Most people do a great job with helping each parks department keep their
facilities clean and looking good. We’ve found over the years that
keeping the park clean throughout makes it easier for spectators to help
us keep it clean. It’s sort of the old “broken windows” theory policemen
talk about, but applied to parks and recreation. So as you visit ballparks this summer, help us “fight dirty” by keeping
the parks clean.
• Remind small children not to throw trash on the
ground;
• Remind players to clean the dugout before they
leave after a game:
• Help us keep our parks beautiful across the state
of Mississippi.
Although I’m a park director and that makes it more important to me than
to most, I’m proud of the fact that my two boys know better than to
throw trash on the ground in the park or anywhere else (and not to walk
through flowerbeds), because others have to pick it up.
Help us keep it clean rather than thinking, “It’s someone else’s job to
pick up.”
No one will have their job cut because of it; there’s plenty of work to
go around. SS