LEXINGTON, Ky. — Whitney Lewis began her journey of picking up trash back in March. She has collected at least 11,000 bags of trash so far and is on her way to hitting a new end-of-the-year goal.
Lewis’ first goal was to collect 500 bags of trash for Earth Day. After surpassing that, she had a goal of hitting 5,000 bags before the end of 2023. She hit that goal a while ago and upped it to 10,000 and that was achieved about a week ago.
“It’s great that we’ve doubled our goal but we’ve doubled our goal because of so many people out there willing to help,” said Lewis.
She has increased her goal once again to 11,111 and reached 11,000 bags of trash on Monday.
“I’m just grateful for the amount of support that all these other people, I mean even people from all over the country, not even just in Kentucky, have shown me,” said Lewis. “That has been the biggest thing for me.”
In September, Lewis won the 2023 “Beautify the Bluegrass Governor’s Award.” Gov. Andy Beshear, D-Ky., presented the award to her in Frankfort.
“To be standing up there at the capital, it felt like a dream,” said Lewis. “Gov. Andy Beshear? I mean, wow! Amazing! And he was great. I cried ‘cause it was just, all of this has just been an amazing journey. I’m just thankful to be a part of it.”
Lewis has a Facebook page where she posts all of her updates. Her GoFundMe can also be found there. Her next goal is to reach 25,000 bags of trash before March 23, which marks one year since she began.