Earth Day in Bennington was a two-day event.

It began with a celebration at Jenn Sutton’s third-grade classroom at Pierce School, where I visited the class to make a presentation and congratulated the students on their recent salamander project they have going on in the Bruce Edes Forest and talked a bit about celebrating Earth Day year-round. I also spoke about helping pollinators, which is the theme of the Conservation Commission and the theme for the sign competition this year.

The main event was the announcement of the Earth Day Roadside Sign Competition winner. This year, the Conservation Commission received 27 great designs from Bennington students, which made the selection of a winner very difficult. Enthusiasm spread among the students as they realized that one of their classmate’s designs had been selected. I said that one of the girls in the class had made the winning design that was the unanimous selection of the commissioners, and all the girls got even more excited.

The sign was brought into the classroom, and the girls looked at it quizzically trying to remember if it was their design. Then Hope Metz-Evans blurted out, “That’s my design!” And indeed it was.

Hope’s design features an eye-catching and colorful bumble bee with the motto “Bee Good to Pollinators.” Her classmates gave her an extended round of congratulatory applause. Anyone driving through Bennington now will see Hope’s pollinator sign in several places along the roads.

Although Saturday began with clouds and a drizzle, residents turned out for the waffle breakfast at the Bennington Depot that the Conservation Commission provided. As good as the waffles were, the two egg casseroles that Jeff Putnam at the Common Place Eatery in Bennington provided were the hit of those having breakfast.

All the other food and supplies for the day were underwritten by Monadnock Paper Mills. Both the Common Place Eatery and Monadnock Paper Mills have been longtime proponents of Bennington’s Earth Day activities, and we are extremely grateful for this ongoing support. Also, volunteers had the opportunity to look at the display set up about invasive species and the town’s Natural Resource Inventory.

As the weather improved about mid-morning, and volunteers will filled with waffles, fruit and eggs, they headed out with their reflective vests and blue bags around town to tackle the litter along the roads. As families and teams, they cleaned all the roads. The team we sent up to Route 202 came back saying, “There’s no litter!” We are grateful to the Scout Troop 6 from Antrim for their recent work on Route 202. The Bennington Democrats cleaned Route 31 south of the village, and the Bennington Sportsmens Club is responsible for Route 47 heading toward Crotched Mountain. All these groups help to make Bennington a cleaner town.

At the end of the morning, the conservation truck picked up just short of 50 blue bags of trash, which is down from previous years. Several of the teams who have also participated in previous years commented on feeling that there was less litter to collect. Volunteer and Bennington Select Board Chairman Jim Cleary commented that his road was a lot cleaner than last year.

“I only got three bags from Old Greenfield Road when last year I had more than twice that number,” he said.

While there is still more trash than we would like to see, the Conservation Commission is very pleased that it appears that people are dealing with their litter more appropriately than chucking it out the window of their car. Little steps eventually make big strides. Several commissioners went out into the Bruce Edes Forest to clear paths that had gotten covered with fallen trees and branches in the heavy snow at the beginning of April, so the paths are now in good order for hiking again.

Mike Munhall is chairman of the Bennington Conservation Commission.