Editor,

Together with a group of neighbors, my husband and I have “adopted” a segment of Heggenes Road between Orr Road and Linda Lane. We did so because we love our beautiful South Whidbey environment, with its woods and fields and clean air, and we hated to see the pristine landscape defiled by beer cans and other detritus. We know the beverages favored by those who litter our neighborhood: Budweiser, Old Milwaukee, Busch and Mike’s Harder Blackberry Lemonade. Three times a year we give up a Saturday morning to pick up what careless others throw from their cars.

I don’t understand who could be so heedless of this beautiful environment, of which the rest of us are so proud, as to fill a plastic grocery bag with cans, tie the top, and toss it out the car window. Some folks say we encourage litter by cleaning up after these vandals. Others, myself included, believe the example of a clean roadside will discourage such behavior. Perhaps seeing a clean roadside, the litterers will hesitate to toss the first cans. We are the optimists, I guess. But the area is our home, and we want a clean home.

So if you know someone who drinks the beverages mentioned above, if you sell those products in your store, or if you are the imbibers, please remind them (or yourselves) that this is your home, too. Let’s keep it beautiful.

SARA BENUM and the HEGGENES VALLEY ROAD BOWLING LEAGUE