SouthData employees rolled up their sleeves to make Riverside Drive a prettier place over the weekend.

SouthData has committed to the state’s Adopt-A-Highway program and is responsible for picking up litter along Riverside Drive from Linville Road to Crossingham Road – a two mile stretch. SouthData’s headquarters and manufacturing facility are located at 201 Technology Lane off Riverside Drive in Mount Airy, North Carolina.

SouthData’s Facility Manager Mark V. Anderson is heading up the project.

“We had a good time for a good cause,” Anderson said. “I am really impressed with how easy it was to get our employees committed to this project. We work with a great group of community-minded people here at SouthData.”

The state has erected two signs stating SouthData’s participation in the program, one at each end of the adopted roadway. The state also provided orange litter bags, safety vests, gloves and will pick up the bagged litter. SouthData has scheduled a Litter Sweep date each quarter.

Sixty-four percent of the employees have signed up for the project. Twenty-seven people helped at Saturday’s pick up, which started at 8 a.m.

The Adopt-A-Highway program was begun in 1988 by the North Carolina Department of Transportation in response to the public’s complaints about littered highways. The program is administered by the NCDOT Office of Beautification Programs, and is a joint effort between community volunteers and the NCDOT.

The program saves taxpayers $4 million annually in roadside clean up costs. North Carolina has one of the largest anti-litter programs in the nation with 6,000 participating groups and 120,000 volunteers statewide who have adopted 12,000 miles of state-maintained roads.

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