Take Pride in Washington

The idea of a town clean-up day has been around for a long time.  Records show that as early as 1909, the town organized a yearly cleanup.  For a brief time in the 1910s, it morphed into a clean-up week, but the organization of an “event” was lacking in those early days.

The first true organization of a city-wide clean-up can be credited to the Town & Country Gardeners, who in 1989 started the tradition of the “Washington Clean-Up Day.” 

This tradition carried on throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s.

The current version of the Washington Clean-Up Day (now dubbed Take Pride in Washington Day) began in April 2006 and was co-chaired by Kristan Creek and Rita Fischbach.  Kristin Jacobson became a co-organizer later. Mayor Gary Manier had seen Rita with her ever-present bag in hand, walking through Washington, combining litter patrol with her daily exercise. When he asked if she would help organize a community-wide “pick-up,” she readily agreed. Participants included the Chamber, Park District, schools, scouts, individuals, and business owners. Businesses were encouraged to pick up litter in their vicinity on the Take Pride days. Also, individuals such as Jamie Smith, who had to work on a Saturday morning, added to the effort by being willing to pick up litter at whatever time was convenient in their schedules.

The tradition continues every spring with participants meeting at Wenger Shelter to pick up their assigned sections of town or traffic areas, their bright orange garbage bags, gloves, and orange t-shirts.  Wissel Trucking and the Washington Park District pick up the stuffed orange bags throughout town and along roads during the morning. The Washington Police Department alerts drivers along busy roads.

The annual event has grown to include over 200-300 helpers, including individuals, youth groups, school classes, churches, and families. As the spring of 2014 approached, even more residents became aware of the need to participate since the F-4 tornado just 5 months earlier had left an unprecedented amount of debris spread across several neighborhoods. The helpers that year included 15 police and first responders from Plainfield, Illinois, which had experienced an F-5 tornado in 1990.  They were assigned to work in an area with large pieces of building debris because of their knowledge of such devastation in their own community. Also helping were 13 school administrators of Central Illinois Valley Region of Illinois Association of School Administrators for their annual service project.

2015 was the 10th annual celebration of Take Pride in Washington Day, and participants were encouraged to wear mismatched socks to remember a quirk of Rita Fischbach who had passed away in early 2015.  In 2020, Washington was no different than the rest of the country during the coronavirus (COVID) pandemic. During the spring of 2020, cities and towns were trying to figure out how to sponsor their usual events without combining people in close groups. The clean-up tradition was postponed until fall and was adjusted for social distancing, with participants going directly to their assigned area to work instead of gathering at Wenger Shelter.

After the first couple of years of the annual clean-up day, Rita joked and said her goal was to never have a Take Pride in Washington Day again because her wish was that we would never see litter that needed to be picked up and that everyone would show pride every day in keeping our community welcoming by being clean and well maintained. Hopefully, someday we can grant Rita her wish.