LaGRANGE — On Saturday, June 9, a group of staff members from the Troup County Sheriff’s Office and their family members donned work gloves and reflective orange vests before cleaning up part of Young’s Mill Road near the Sheriff’s Pineland Youth Home.

“We go out there and everybody volunteers, it takes us about an hour to do it,” said Sgt. Stewart Smith. “We try to get together once every other month. It doesn’t collect a lot of litter out there, but this time we got eight bags so it was substantial.”

These litter-filled stretches can be unsightly, especially when left unattended for extended periods. For that reason, the volunteers cleaned in April and plan to keep it that way.

“It was a way for us to do our part by adopting an area that is close to us, the youth home,” Smith said. “We do a lot of work for the youth home out there and so we pick that property to clean up.”

The Pineland location in LaGrange is one of five Georgia Sheriff’s Youth Homes. The first home near Hahira was opened in the 1960’s after a decade of state sheriffs showing concern over the number of abandoned, neglected and abused children, according to their official site.

The homes were opened up to help disadvantaged youth learn teamwork, personal responsibility and manners, among other things. The Troup County Sheriff’s office adopted the stretch of Young’s Mill Road that holds the Pineland home, and shows their support through their cleanup efforts.

“It was our way of giving back to the community by keeping that area of the county free of trash,” Smith said. “We do a lot of work for the youth home out there and so we pick that property to clean up.”