DES MOINES – A Des Moines woman is taking extra steps to make Downtown Des Moines a little cleaner and more beautiful. And now she’s trying to motivate others to help her cause.
It’s areas like this one that no one really knows who picks up the trash, so Whitney Warne has taken it upon herself to come out here and pick up that trash.
“I consider those our spaces, so there’s a space just down by MLK that I’ve started to pick up and it’s absolutely covered in litter and I’ve been spending as much time as I can there every day and I’m still not making much of a dent, but I can see my progress,” said Ivory House Photography owner, Whitney Warne.
Warne says it’s thanks to a friend that she’s been out every day since Sunday picking up trash.
“I had noticed a ton of litter, but we’re always going somewhere, so I didn’t really stop and think about picking it up, but it had always visually bothered me and I had that urking feeling.”
She says it’s something anyone can do, really anytime they’re outside.
“Picking up litter isn’t outside most people’s abilities, if we can go for a walk, we can very easily pick up litter on that walk.”
Warne is even motivating others to help pick up litter around the metro.
“I thought, well if I can incentivize people to go out and pick up litter by offering a photo shoot that just seemed like a really easy thing to do,” said Warne.
So the photographer posted a picture of some litter she picked up on Facebook with a call to action.
“Hey everyone, if you want to go and pick up a big bag of litter and I just ask people to tag Ivory House Photography so i can see it and then #ivoryhouseeliminateslitter and then tell me where you picked up.”
Warne says having clean areas that aren’t filled with litter are more inviting to both residents and visitor.
Those that do post their photos of them picking up litter have until Tuesday to do so. Warne will then draw to see who wins the free hour photo shoot.
