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Sumter residents to clear litter as part of Community Cleanup initiative

Teams are collecting trash along designated roads throughout the county on Saturday. Crews from C. Simmons Construction got started early along Stamey Livestock Road

SUMTER, S.C. — Sumter is hosting a Community Clean-Up to pick up litter along the sides of roads throughout the county on Saturday. One team, however, got started a little early.

Lee Dickey works for C. Simmons Construction. Together with almost 40 of his coworkers, he picked up trash along Stamey Livestock Road on Friday.

"It’s kinda fun doing it, you know? Experiencing it," Dickey said. "It feels kinda great to give back to community when you’re out doing it, you know? Saying it is easy but when you’re out doing it, it’s better. So I kinda feel great."

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Joe McIntyre is the project manager for C. Simmons. He helped motivate crew members like Dickey to take part in the clean-up.

"The more people that see somebody’s out here trying to take responsibility and trying to clean up, it makes people more aware that, ‘Hey, maybe I need to try and help with that as well," McIntyre said. "It just helps the community so much more making it look better and presentable to people coming in the community."

Not only does it encourage other residents to keep their community clean, but McIntyre said it also serves as a good team-building exercise

"Everything we do has a team base," McIntyre said. "We work with all our crews, trying to have everybody organized and on the same page with everything we do, so bringing them out, doing this, and having the organization of everybody working together to try and clean up one or two roads...helps us out with team-building as well."

RELATED: 'Training the next generation': Sumter students receive free litter lesson kits to learn about keeping their community clean

This team-building is something that Dickey is grateful for.

"Without those guys back here, I probably couldn’t do it out here by myself and my other fellow workers down here," Dickey said.

On Saturday, 13 other teams will be cleaning up their assigned roads. Volunteers who want to help out can sign up using the litter volunteer form on SumterSC.gov.

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