PRINT ADS

Joe and Erik Benson of Holmen are used to being stared at. Usually they get stared at because they are twins and people get confused. But lately the stares are coming for a different reason.

The boys, 18, have been avid runners since they were in the 7th grade and run twice a day during the summer. For the past couple summers, they have been picking up trash while they run on their routes. The run separately, but they each run a four-mile route and pick up trash as they go along.

“People would stare,” Erik said. “It’s kind of weird looking, I guess, to see someone running for exercise that is carrying a Mountain Dew can. It seems like a contradiction. ‘Why are you drinking soda while you run?’ they probably think.”

“We pick up garbage and drop it in trash cans along the way,” said Joe. “It keeps the streets pretty clean. I do it for my peace of mind. Someone is going to have to pick it up and I’m here, it might as well be me. It’s important to do what you can.”

“Everyone else says someone will pick it up,” Erik agreed. “Why can’t it be me? It makes me feel like I’m doing something.”

A couple weeks ago, Erik said there was a big “wood thing” in the road. “It was smashed into about a 100 little pieces. Every day we go by there and pick up another piece. It’s almost all gone now.”

One thing they won’t pick up is cigarettes, and they won’t go off their running path, but if they see something, they’ll pick it up. One danger is picking up something that might have ants or other bugs. “I’ll put that back down,” Joe said. “I’m not going to run around with ants crawling up my arm.”

Neither of them are looking forward to Kornfest. “Kornfest will be bad,” Joe said. “A lot of people will just throw trash around. We’ll see a lot of trash after that.”

Maybe this time the routes won’t have so much trash. But Erik and Joe don’t mind being stared at and will do what they can to have it all cleaned up before they head off to college in the fall.

Erik is going to University of Wisconsin-Whitewater for a business degree. Joe is attending Western Technical College for journalism training.