MEMPHIS, Tenn. — March is Keep Tennessee Beautiful Month and the organization, of the same name located in Memphis, is encouraging people to not litter and to get out and clean up.
"Tennessee belongs to all of us," Keep Tennessee Beautiful Executive Director Missy Marshall said. "It's our front yard and we’re the Volunteer State and to me, it’s just taking that pride in our state and communities.”
The mission of the group is to inspire Tennesseans to improve and beautify their communities.
This month, they're encouraging people to do just that by doing what they call "trashercise" which is a way to get out and active while picking up litter. It's the basis of their statewide campaign, that's now underway.
"Our goal is for people to be trashercising individually or as a group in all 95 counties," Marshall said. "It’s not an event. We’re hoping it’s a moment. Trashercising is a verb. It’s not a noun. So, we’re hoping to inspire people to get out there.”
Trashercise was first coined 15 years ago in Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee by Aubrey Preston. Aubrey had the idea while working out the gym. He figured why pay to work out when people can get outside, be active and pick up trash at the same time?
Since then approximately 150,000 pounds of trash have been collected over the past 15 years.
People can join the "Trashercise Across Tennessee" challenge here.
