It all began with one person.

Now, dozens have donated supplies or their time to help Justin Holden of Orange make a cleaner community. For the last four months, Holden has been up at 4 a.m. to clean different sections of the town, inspired by the trash he’d see while out riding his bike.

“Every single day I would ride my bike down the road and see nips and needles,” he said while out with a team of volunteers on Thursday.

As word got around that he was cleaning trash, Holden began to receive donations of bags and from there, people began to join him. Now, he said around 90 volunteers have been part of different cleanups. Among the locations they have worked at are near the Orange Police Department, near the route of the River Rat Race and Orange Airport. He’s also done a cleanup in Greenfield that saw approximately 200 volunteers.

So far, volunteers have filled 40 bags of trash, which are picked up later by refuse services. Nip bottles, beer cans, used diapers, car parts, syringes, several kinds of vapes and even prescription drugs have been found alongside roads and in parks.

“There are kids in the towns and I don’t want them to get hold of those (syringes) and poke themselves with it,” he said.

As the lengthy cleanup effort progresses, Holden plans to work around McDonald’s, Lake Dennis and Lake Mattawa, among others. People can also suggest areas to clean. As the team makes their way toward the town lines, he wants to expand into Athol and Gardner. He said the areas with the most litter in Orange are Butterfield Park and near the police station. When selecting a site, Holden will go ahead of time to remove any dangerous items so the children who frequently volunteer don’t get hurt.

Holden said he’s always looking for more volunteers or donated trash bags, gloves, and snacks for volunteers, and people can reach out through his Facebook page or the Orange MA, Out and About page.

“I want them to see a whole bunch of people picking up their trash,” he said. “I want them to know that it’s wrong.”

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