Every spring, Martin Luther High School’s junior class of 15 to 20 students travels a couple miles north of the school to help make a difference while having some fun.

The volunteers, under the supervision of their class adviser, spend a few hours walking the roadside ditches along Highway 15, participating in Minnesota’s Adopt A Highway program. Martin Luther High has been involved since the very beginning of Adopt a Highway, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

“It’s just a thing we do; it’s part of having a servant heart,” said Marge Thiesse, director of development at the high school.

“First off, [the students] have fun,” she continued. “They have found interesting things, some quite unusual things in the road ditches. [They also are] being environmentally conscience because it’s just a shame what people throw out there. And it makes them feel good to do something that they know makes the world a little bit better place.”

The students collect the trash in bags provided by the Minnesota Department of Transportation, which also gathers the bags.

A second group in Martin County — the Galena 4-H Club — shares the local honor with Martin Luther High School for having been involved in Adopt a Highway for the full 30 years. Other area groups are involved as well, leaving just two sections of highway available for adoption in the county. Those interested in the program can visit www.mndot.gov/adopt

Martin Luther High School and Galena 4-H are among the 475 groups that have been involved from the start of Adopt a Highway. Overall, there are 3,800 volunteer groups working around the state.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is offering thanks to all the volunteers as it celebrates the 30th anniversary.

“It’s really remarkable to see the commitment that some of these volunteer groups have given to the program,” said Anne Meyer of MnDOT’s public affairs office. “I think it’s a testament to what the program does, which is really help keep Minnesota highways clean and safe. It’s an easy way to volunteer. And then for us, on the MnDOT side, it’s really helpful because it allows our maintenance workers not to focus on picking up litter because that’s being handled by the volunteers, so they can concentrate on other work, whether it be guard rail repair, helping to secure a construction area, tree trimming, lawn mowing.”

MnDOT says groups of four to 25 people spent an estimated 272,000 hours in 2019 working in the ditches, gathering 40,000 bags of trash.

Volunteers are asked to commit to the program for at least two years, with the average length of an adopted highway being two miles.

MnDOT provides volunteers with safety training and safety vests. It also posts signs along the adopted segments of roads with the names of the volunteer groups.

The Minnesota Adopt a Highway program began in 1990 after then-Gov. Rudy Perpich visited Texas to speak with Lady Bird Johnson about the state’s anti-litter campaign called “Don’t Mess with Texas.”