ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 24, 1996 TAG: 9610240006
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: BETH MACY
SOURCE: BETH MACY
Against a backdrop of roaring trucks, the early-morning dew sopping into her high-top tennis shoes, Gloria Poff stoops to pick up society's cast-offs: a spray-paint can, a litter of losing lottery tickets, a dented-in Miller Lite and a Hershey bar wrapper.
She is a garbage-truck length away from a sign that bears her name: ``Adopt-A-Street, Roanoke, G.C. Poff.'' Stationed at the Salem-Roanoke line on Salem Turnpike in Northwest Roanoke, the sign stands in the shadow of another sign: ``Welcome to Roanoke, All-America city.''
The 43-year-old postal worker literally risks life and limb to pick up her two-mile stretch of this shoulderless road. Cars and trucks zoom within a yard of her, an occasional warning honk punctuating the roar.
In a pre-election October - when the leaves pile up like the promises of politicians - Poff is making a political statement of her own.
Without opening her mouth.
For 12 years, she's been picking up litter on Salem Turnpike, and here is some of what she's tucked into her plastic bags: aspirin bottles turned into crack pipes, hypodermic needles, beer and wine bottles galore, even drug-making paraphernalia - littered on the grounds of nearby Fairview Elementary.
She doesn't talk specifically about making our streets safe, or fighting the drug war that rages within gunfire range of her own home.
And yet she manages to cover it all: ``In my opinion, what we see here tells us the type of people we really are,'' she says. ``What it all boils down to is this: A lot of people simply don't care.''
Of litter, she says: ``I would like our street to be more community-minded. I know there are other, bigger problems, but I think if we start on a smaller scale with litter, we could really make a dent.''
Getting people to care is Poff's personal goal. She has stopped teen-agers on the street to ask them to stop throwing candy wrappers on the ground.
She has engaged in debates - with city officials, with property owners, with anyone who will listen - concerning a nearby junkyard, a rat-infested Dumpster and an overgrown lot that is home to snakes and 10 years worth of thrown bottles and cans.
She has talked to mothers who toss dirty diapers on the ground at bus stops. She asks them to complain to Valley Metro about the need for benches and trash cans. She tries to be polite, nonconfrontational.
Until recently, she did this all on her own - inspired by the urging of her son, Jonathan, a fourth-grader at Fairview, a magnet school that's big on recycling and the environment. ``He got tired of looking at all this trash on the way to school, and he asked me to do something about it,'' she says.
In March, Poff made the volunteer work official, becoming one of the few individuals to take on Adopt-a-Street routes in Roanoke. Her area covers both sides of the two-mile stretch of Salem Turnpike from the edge of the Landsdowne housing development to the Salem city limits.
Ann Masters, the Clean Valley Council's director, compares what Poff has done to the work of city residents on Day and Marshall avenues in Old Southwest. ``They are cleaning up the place, and the crack dealers are moving out,'' Masters says.
``It's called building community. And it's what you do when you're not inside your house with your doors closed.
``Gloria realizes she'll never finish, but she'll also never quit. She's showing that one person can make a difference - in her son's life, in her school's life, and on the turnpike.''
Raised on a Rockbridge County farm, Poff grew up in a family that recycled everything it could: bottles and aluminum returned for money, old tires used as a fence border for the cows. ``I'll admit, I'm nuts about trash,'' she says. ``I can't just drive past it on the road. I have to get out and pick it up. The next day I drive by again, and it's right back out there. It drives me crazy.''
Parents who set the example of littering do the most damage, she believes. She wants to work with the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority to institute a team of residents who help pick up trash where the city maintenance crews can't.
She'd like parks and grounds workers to be upgraded to "city ranger" status, issuing citations to people who litter. (Those who can't pay the fine should be forced into community service: picking up litter.)
So far this year, 31 litter citations have been made in Roanoke. For Poff, that's way too low.
``I know littering seems like a small offense, but if you're doing that, you're doing the other things,'' she says. ``I mean, I'm finding drug paraphernalia everywhere.
``And it seems to me, respect for the land God gave us is as good a place to start as any.''
For information on adopting a street or highway - or just cleaning up a stretch of your neighborhood - call Ann Masters at the Clean Valley Council, 345-5523.
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART/Staff. Gloria Poff collects litter from aby CNBstretch of Salem Turnpike that she has adopted. color.