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Local high school teacher trying to deter littering in his neighborhood

By Mark Hofmann mhofmann@heraldstandard.Com 3 min read
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A Connellsville High School teacher is using his spare time to remind people around his neighborhood to keep the area beautiful by not littering.

James Guthrie has been picking up litter for his entire life. His parents instilled the idea that people should be stewards of the environment, conducting large, annual trash pickups on the first Saturday of May since he and his brother, Joel, were kids.

That passion not only lead James Guthrie to also pickup trash in his neck of the woods in the Coolspring area of Lemont Furnace when he moved there 10 years ago, it also influenced his decision to become a biology teacher at Connellsville Area High School.

Neighbors and Friends of Jumonville has been picking up litter for 40 years starting along Jumonville Road, said Jacqueline Guthrie, James’ mom.

The group started picking up litter and ended the day with a big picnic. This year, social distancing and other COVID-19 restrictions put a halt to the cleanup with only a few planning to participate.

With schools closed down, James Guthrie said he decided to complete a project that had been in his back of his mind for a while — painting a sign to let people know they love Coolspring and Jumonville, and asking passersby not to litter.

The sign was placed in a way that people traveling to Coolspring will see the Coolspring side of the sign and those traveling to Jumonville will see the Jumonville side of the sign.

“This is a real heavy-littered place,” he said. “By the time I picked up one thing, someone threw out two pieces of trash.”

James Guthrie joked that he didn’t know if the sign would deter people from throwing out their trash or give them a target at which to throw their trash.

“I just wanted to show people I care and the neighbors care,” he said, adding that when he put up the sign last month, people were stopping to congratulate and support him for the initiative.

“It’s important to him to keep his neighborhood looking nice,” Jacqueline Guthrie said. “The sign is really nice, and I’m proud of him for doing it.”

James Guthrie thanked neighbors Bill and Denise Hickle for allowing him to post the sign on their property and said he will see how things go with the sign he has put up. If all goes well, he said, he may do another sign for his parent’s neighborhood in the future.

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