Lenny Strauss
Hometown Weekly Correspondent
Sherborn Picks Up, a community volunteer organization focused on picking up litter and beautifying the town of Sherborn has begun its annual call to action, with support by the Town of Sherborn’s Select Board and its Department of Public Works.
Along with the town-wide cleanup, it joins 17 other states and 7 countries in creating public art known as the Litter Letters Project, installations of 3D letters made of chicken wire frames, aimed at promoting recognition of the problems of litter worldwide, with the hopes of inspiring dialogue and pushing a call to action in preventing the existence of litter globally.
Proponents of the project have found that its use has resulted in several “positive outcomes for communities worldwide, primarily by raising environmental awareness, inspiring community engagement, and promoting dialogue on littering and recycling.”
Hometown Weekly correspondent Lenny Strauss had the opportunity to speak with Catherine Rocchio, an organizer of the Sherborn Picks Up effort, about the upcoming project, her plans and strategies for reducing the presence of litter in town, as well as the Litter Letters Project and the need for volunteers.
LS: “Tell me more about the Sherborn Picks Up Effort, how did the collaboration with the Department of Public Works start up?
CR: “It all started when a resident, Kim Chester, was annoyed on her running route because she noticed the same dump of litter appearing on her route. She worked with the Sherborn Police, and they eventually caught the repeat offender through cameras. This was before Covid.”
“During Covid, we decided to begin picking up ourselves. It made sense to get together, as we were noticing all this litter around town, and we wanted to get coordinated. During that time Kim also got into the Litter Letters project, which she and some volunteers built. We are a grassroots organization, we receive some support from the DPW, getting some equipment and vests, but we are primarily volunteer funded and volunteered.”
“The difficult thing about Sherborn is that a lot of the litter is on the main roads, and it then blows into the swamps. You don’t realize that a lot of Sherborn is wetlands until you're climbing behind those guardrails and down a little hill… never mind the fact that when you're out there on the roads, it feels like cars try harder to hit us. Sherborn Police has been great, but it can be difficult, especially on those main roads. So, you know, you just have to go out when you can, I’m going to go to pick up on Western Ave later today and just keep the effort going.”
“We also do group pickups in certain areas. There's a Girl Scout troop, and a youth group from Sherborn picking up tomorrow, and we have the fire department picking up today on Coolidge. So, we’ve encouraged this sort of grassroots thing during the month of April, and we have members like Kim and I, along with members from the DPW helping to support this. We go and speak at schools, and present to them about the issue. So, our effort is twofold, one is picking up litter, and another is raising awareness, because it’s a little bit of: ‘if you’re not going to pick it up, who is?’”
LS: “What has been your strategy for recruitment?”
CR: “We use Facebook. We use a signup and every year everybody who has signed up gets updates. We also use Sign Up Genus to recruit members, but primarily use our Facebook page, which gets posted elsewhere within Sherborn. We use a blast out of the town website to point to the sign up. Visiting schools like Pine Hill where we present every year, where kids get to hear it and talk about it, and also parents who attend this all-school meeting, that allows us to get people that way. Kind hill school like I said, every year we go and present, and the kids hear it. They'll talk about it and also there's parents that attend this all-school meeting, so we get people that way.”
LS: “Are there any special permits needed from the town or city hall for the letters? Or are they kept on private property? Also, how do the Litter Letters work?”
CR: “The environmental art of the Litter Letters is a 100% about raising awareness, you know, people don't have to put their litter in them! To engage in this environmental art and to raise awareness of people driving through town and seeing all this litter displayed in these letters, it’s about the message it sends. So no, no special permits are needed. Thank goodness the DPW helps out, every may, they pick them up, remove the trash and store them for the winter, to have them ready for us when we use them again. The litter letters serve an important purpose: to raise awareness.”
LS: “Do you feel there is anything the town can do to prevent litter from re-appearing?”
CR: “I think Sherborn is going to have to depend on technology. Ironically, we just picked up in Western Ave, a bunch of litter under our ‘Do Not Litter’ sign. I think in the near future there’s going to be cameras, hopefully people who are contributing to this litter get fined. There really is no other way other than raising awareness. It’s unbelievable. You have people that will just open their car windows and throw litter right out. Chicken nugget sauce holders, alcohol cans, all kinds of litter.”
LS: “What motivates you to stay involved and organize such a community-focused endeavor?”
CR: “Once you pick an area up, you feel engaged with it, and then as you drive along and see that it's getting better, you feel you feel accountable. So, once you do it, there's that accountability. And I think that's what kind of keeps me motivated. I feel accountable for things beyond my own front yard, I drive on these roads every day, and now I know it because I've walked along it so many times and picked up litter. That really is it you know, we're hoping to drive that accountability forward.”
Readers! For anyone looking to be a part of Sherborn Picks Up, feel free to join the Facebook group of the same name, or through the Sign-Up Genius page on the web: Sherborn Picks Up April 2026! For more information and updates on the litter project, and to learn how more communities continue to grow in their mission to address and resolve the issues of litter in their environments, follow #litterletters @thelitterletterproject on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
