Most of us see vacations as a time for fun and relaxation. Stefani Shamrowicz, on the other hand, chose to spend her reprieve making the earth a little cleaner.
Stefani has been fighting back against litter for quite some time now. So when she decided to take a spontaneous road trip across the U.S. to see family and friends, she came up with a brilliant way to help out the planet, too.
“My name is Steff and I’m about to drive across the country and pick up trash,” she said in an Instagram video. “So if you’d like to donate $10, I’ll pick up a whole bag of trash for you, and I will send you a picture with your name and the city that you helped clean up, so you’ll feel really good about yourself and the country will be cleaner. So please help me.”
Her story quickly garnered quite a bit of attention. Plenty of people began following her adventures on Instagram and donating to her GoFundMe page. She quickly raised over $2,950 – and that money did not go to waste.
It wasn’t long before she’d spent 70 hours cleaning up parts of 11 states: New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. In that time, she managed to collect 125 bags for an impressive total of 1,600 gallons of trash.
Having cleaned up so much litter, Stefani has learned a thing or two about what people tend to throw away. She says that 80 percent of the garbage she has collected has been drinking bottles. That’s why she’s advising everyone to grab reusable bottles instead.
Switching to reusable bottles is a great way to make a positive impact. Even though Stefani is doing incredible work, she can’t do it alone.
“I’m not going to be able to pick up everything, but if everyone starts picking up some on walks or runs, that’s where the magic is,” she said.
Stefani has received so much help along the way, and she couldn’t be more grateful. From donations to strangers helping her fill up the trash bags, her journey revealed just how much can be accomplished when we work together.
“As much as there’s a … ton of trash out there (I promise there is), there’s also a lot of beauty,” Stefani said.
Don’t forget to share this story to encourage your friends to do their part in keeping the planet clean.
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