On Wednesday afternoon, groups of people carrying orange garbage bags could be seen moving through fields on the east side of Fort Dodge, in the area where lots of stores are located. As they moved, they gradually filled those bags with every piece of litter they found.

That effort was the annual spring cleanup, once called the FOD Walk. For more than 15 years, the effort organized by the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance has made our community a bit cleaner.

The endeavor was started by Rhonda Chambers, the former director of aviation at Fort Dodge Regional Airport who once led the alliance’s Image Committee. She relied on her professional background to create it. FOD is an aviation acronym that stands for Foreign Object and Debris. FOD Walks are conducted at civilian and military airfields to remove anything from the runways that might damage a plane. In some cases, airfield personnel will stand shoulder to shoulder and walk down the runway looking for things.

Chambers applied the same general strategy to the city. In its first few years, the FOD Walk focused heavily on fields on the eastern side of the city, where shopping bags and other litter was known to accumulate. Some of the recent walks were expanded to include downtown.

Volunteers are what make the effort a success every year. Each person who was out picking up litter on Wednesday, Earth Day, was a volunteer.

Green State Credit Union and Koch Fertilizer – Fort Dodge were the sponsors of this year’s cleanup. A total of 64 groups participated, each bringing a team of volunteers.

The effort covered about 55 acres. In those 55 acres, the volunteers filled more than 93 bags of trash.

That is what we call a good day’s work. We should all be thankful for the efforts of all those volunteers, But we should also be a bit ashamed that there was so much litter out there for them to pick up.

The people and businesses who participated Wednesday deserve our gratitude for making our city a bit cleaner. Credit is also due to Chambers, who pioneered the FOD Walk.