ALTON - The Alton City-Wide Litter Clean-Up proved to be a major success last Saturday as volunteers from local businesses and all over the community took to the streets to clean up litter from their neighborhoods.

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Pride, Inc., a nonprofit organization focused on neighborhood beautification projects, took on a major role in organizing this City-Wide Clean-Up in collaboration with Alton Main Street and several other local organizations.

“It was wonderful - thank God we had beautiful weather,” Pride, Inc. Executive Director Pat Stewart said. “It was just really neat ... some of the feedback we’ve gotten from others as far as people driving by and honking and thanking us for what we did.”

Supplies such as gloves and bags were provided at registration stations for those who needed them, along with free donuts. While the event was widely successful, Stewart said the amount of trash collected underscores the need for a future anti-littering campaign.

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“I don't know how we’re going to go about doing this, but we need to get the message out: ‘Keep your trash until you get home,’” Stewart said. “It was just astounding how many bags we picked up.

“I think when we do our after-action review, that might be a focus on how to … educate our kids not to roll the windows down and throw your trash out - or even our adults, at this point,” Stewart said.

Stewart said Pride, Inc. has started an education committee within the organization which is looking into ways to get this litter-free message out, including a possible poster contest at local schools.

The next Alton City-Wide Litter Clean-Up will be this fall on Saturday, Sept. 10 from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. Stewart said as of now, the registration locations from last Saturday’s event will be the same for the one this fall- those locations are the Riverbender Building at 200 W Third St. in Alton and the Hellrung Park entrance at Seventh St. and Central Ave.

For more information on Pride, Inc. and to see more photos from the Alton City-Wide Litter Clean-Up, visit Pride, Inc.’s Facebook page.

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