Keeping it clean

Jul 6, 2020

Every day for the last two years, Dave Malonson has walked up and down Glen Charlie Road at least twice a day to pick up litter. 

“Pouring rain or Christmas, it doesn’t matter,” said his wife, Carol Malonson. 

On Sunday, Dave Malonson’s neighbors and members of Don’t Trash Wareham gathered to parade past his house in his honor to say thank you for all his hard work.

With cars and trucks festooned with balloons and signs saying thank you, the parade took Malonson totally by surprise.

“I thought we were getting a family photo,” Malonson said. He came outside with the rest of his family, and asked them if they also heard some horns in the distance.

The group had an additional surprise for Malonson: Together, they had filled a basket with thank you notes and raised more than $1,400 as a thank you gift. 

Malonson is currently working to restore a Chevy Camaro and a Volkswagen Bug.

“I’m a little overwhelmed,” he said.

Carol Melanson said that he usually spends well over an hour each day picking up litter on Glen Charlie Road, which has become heavily trafficked in the time since they moved in to their home on a nearby side street. He goes out before work, picks up some litter on his way home for lunch and drive back to work, and goes out again on his way home at the end of the day. 

Each week, Malonson picks up enough litter to fill a thirty-gallon trash barrel. 

Additionally, Malonson received a certificate of appreciation from the Wareham Board of Selectmen, which read “For his unwavering commitment to the Glen Charlie neighborhood trash incentive. Mr. Malonson is a member of Don’t Trash Wareham’s team Shangri-la. He has faithfully cleaned the roadside daily, sometimes two or three times a day, since April of 2018. This certificate is awarded gratefully to an outstanding community volunteer.”