Pride Beautification Plans Oct. 3 Citywide Cleanup in Alton
ALTON - Pride, Incorporated will host their biannual community litter cleanup to promote community involvement and beautification.
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At 9 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, community members can join Pride, Inc. for the citywide cleanup in Alton. Volunteers are invited to pre-register or show up the day of to receive supplies and donuts from Duke Bakery, courtesy of OSF HealthCare. Pat Stewart and Natalie Merrill with Pride, Inc. can’t wait to welcome volunteers for a fun day.
“We are a not-for-profit organization that’s been around for 60 years in the Riverbend area,” Merrill explained. “We always say, many hands make light work. We know there’s lots of litter out there in our neighborhoods, subdivisions, streets. If we just take a little bit of time, an hour or two on Saturday morning, it’s amazing what we can accomplish.”
On Oct. 3, community members can meet at Hellrung Park, 200 W. Third Street, or College Avenue Presbyterian Church to collect supplies and donuts. Organizers will then assign volunteers to an area in Alton, where they can go and pick up litter.
In the weeks leading up to the citywide cleanup, you can also pre-register online and pick up supplies at the Alton Visitors Bureau or the Pride, Inc. office located within the Benjamin Godfrey Mansion in Godfrey.
While Oct. 3 is the main focus, Stewart noted that people are encouraged to clean up whenever they can; if that Saturday doesn’t work for you, you can still pick up supplies and participate in your own time.
Merrill and Stewart are looking for more businesses, organizations and schools to get involved. They have collaborated with several local schools in the past to teach the students about the downsides of littering. They noted that these cleanups count for community service hours.
Their goal is to raise up a generation that knows the value of keeping their hometown clean. It’s important to them that everybody works together to maintain the community.
“It’s really to get the education out there,” Stewart said. “If we get more kids involved, then every time the parent rolls down the window to throw something out, hopefully that kid in the backseat is going, ‘Don’t do that.’”
Stewart and Merrill thanked the City of Alton, which will pick up the bags of trash in the days following the cleanup. In addition to the twice-yearly cleanups, the organization has collaborated closely with Great Rivers and Routes Tourism Bureau and a few other groups to maintain planters and American flags in Alton, as well as other beautification projects they complete throughout the year.
The duo expressed their appreciation for these collaborations. Merrill and Stewart are thankful for those who work hard to beautify the community.
Pride, Inc. is determined to help people “love where you live.” Through beautification efforts like the citywide cleanup, they hope to keep the Riverbend community clean and welcoming.
“We just [want] to educate the community on the importance of living in a clean environment. It’s not that tough, but you wouldn’t believe. We gather over 75 bags of trash in a three-hour period with the groups that we have out,” Stewart added. “Everything that we’re doing to get people into the City of Alton, why not showcase it? Why not make it beautiful?”
For more information about the community cleanup on Oct. 3, 2026, including how to register, visit the official webpage. To learn more about Pride, Inc., check out their official website.
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