CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Volunteers across the state will be doing their part to pick up litter over the next two weeks.
The annual 2026 West Virginia Make It Shine statewide cleanup officially gets underway Monday, with an estimated 2,000 volunteers from 45 counties contributing.
Program coordinator Chris Cartwright said the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan (REAP) program relies heavily on volunteers for these cleanups.
“The West Virginia Make It Shine program and the REAP program in general, we do our best to manage our cleanups throughout the year with volunteers, so if you’re interested in doing anything in your community — a stream cleanup, a local cemetery, a park, a river bank, anything on public grounds basically — you can call our office at any time of the year and we will do our best to get you resources to do your cleanup.”
Cartwright said the diversity in volunteers is quite rewarding.
“We’ve got kids out working, we’ve got older people out working, we’ve got neighborhood associations, watershed associations. The amount of people that are out there, that you get to meet, and that are really, truly interested in going out and doing good work in their communities, it makes it all worthwhile.”
This is Cartwright’s second stint as program coordinator. He spent some time in the 1990s as head of the initiative, then came back to the program two years ago. There is still time for others to get involved in this event and other REAP programs, Cartwright said.
“They can contact our office. The registration deadline for this year’s spring cleanup has already passed, but if anyone is interested in joining in with another group doing a cleanup in their area, they can contact our office and we’ll try to point them in the right direction.”
The cleanup runs through April 19. Last year, over 3,800 volunteers helped remove 98 tons of litter to clean 99 acres of land and 53 miles of streams.
“We’ve got pretty stable numbers and we’ve got a good volunteer base,” Cartwright said. “We’ve got people and groups that come out year after year after year in this statewide cleanup.”
The Make It Shine program started in 1994. Cartwright said he hopes the cleanup can be educational to kids, and emphasized how people can assist.
“Don’t think that you’re not able to do something because you’ve missed this two-week period that we do here for Make It Shine every spring. The program has kind of morphed into providing resources such as bags, gloves, litter grabbers, waste hailing, and disposal fees to volunteers throughout the state that want to do this type of cleanup at any time during the year. They can reach us through the website or through our 1-800 number. If you want to plan a cleanup, or want help planning a cleanup, give us a call and let us know and we’ll do whatever it is we can do for you.”
Visit the Make It Shine website here.