PA DMB Fans Adopt a Highway
By Waldo JaquithWhile visiting Charlottesville last year, Chandra McConnell of Enola, Pennsylvania had an idea. On seeing an adopt-a-highway sign, she was struck by the thought that DMB fans could help take part in the hands-on environmental work, and set about making it happen. 
Last Saturday the 20th, Chandra and nine other Dave Matthews Band fans spent the day cleaning up Route 422 in Hershey, Pennsylvania, having adopted the stretch of road for the next two years. Though the connection isn't surprising -- the band's much-touted One Sweet Whirled environmental initiative asks for fans to make such commitments -- it's one thing for a person to say that they're going to make a difference in the band's name and another to actually do it.
nancies.org: How in the world did you get this idea? Is it related at all to the band and Ben & Jerry's One Sweet World environmental initiative?
Chandra McConnell: I actually came up with the idea on vacation last year with my boyfriend. We went to North Carolina for a fishing trip and on the way back I convinced my him to go slightly out of his way and make a stop in Charlottesville. Ok, so it was really out of the way, but he knew it meant a lot to me just to see where the band started out. We did a little bit of shopping and visited Miller's and headed back home. That's when I noticed a sign along the highway that said "this section of highway available for adoption" with an 800 number for the VA Department of Transportation. Since we had just left C-ville, the band was already on my mind and that's when the idea popped into my head! I'm sure the band gets lots of gifts from fans and I thought this would be a pretty original gift to "give" them.
I came up with the idea of making shirts for everyone to wear also. On the front they say "PA Fans of the Dave Matthews Band Adopt a Highway Hershey PA" and on the back is a trashcan with the words "I got TRASHED for DMB."
I was lucky enough to meet the band last week at the shows in Camden and gave Dave, Stefan and Boyd all pictures of our sign along the road. Then this Sunday morning, most of us from the clean-up met up at the band's hotel hoping to show them our shirts and get some autographs. I put some pictures of us in front of the sign in a little album to give to Dave. While we were standing there waiting for him to come out, his driver got off the bus and came over to me with the picture I gave Dave last week and said "hey is this yours?" I said "yeah!" I was so excited that Dave had kept the picture! He asked where the sign was and I told him it was on 422 in Hershey. I sat down on a wall along the sidewalk talking to everyone there and all of a sudden I looked up at the bus and there was Dave in the front window pointing at me trying to get my attention. He took a few steps back and grabbed the shirt we had given his driver. He walked down the steps to the door and held it up smiled, and gave me the thumbs up as they pulled away. It was so exciting! Just to know that he appreciated what we did was great! Dave also saw some of the adopt-a-highwayers at the show near the front of the crowd and pointed at their shirts and smiled.
n.org: How did you get so many people to help out with this?
CM: Well, there were actually less people there than I had hoped, but all the people that showed up worked really hard! I posted messages on the Warehouse message boards, and Nancies along with some other fan sites. I printed flyers and had friends post them at PA colleges and I also handed them out at PA shows earlier in the tour. Unfortunately, I did get some negative response. We got a lot of "treehugger" comments. Then on the other end of the spectrum, I had two awesome girls that were attending the Hershey show from Maine, show up a day early to help clean up.
n.org: What did the highway department make of all this?
CM: The contact person at PennDOT was very excited about all this. He said his daughter is a big DMB fan also. At first, I wasn't sure if we could participate since we aren't an official club or organization but he assured me it would be fine. The first time I called him he also told me there was a group of Jimmy Buffett fans that adopted a section of highway in Lancaster, PA several years ago. Pretty much the only stipulations were that I couldn't be running for any kind of political office and we weren't allowed to use any kind of logo or advertisement.
n.org: What was the actual clean-up like?
CM: Hot! The section of highway was 2 miles long and we had to clean both sides, along with about a half mile section of grass in the middle of the lanes. Fortunately, the township where it's located keeps the section pretty clean and mows often so it really wasn't very "dirty." About two weeks ago I picked up the supplies for the clean-up which included gloves, vests and bags. I also had to put up a big orange sign at either end of the section that said "Litter Crew Ahead." (One of them was stolen which was kind of a bummer, and I'm hoping it wasn't a DMB fan that took it!)
I thought Saturday would be a good day, since there would be a lot of fans in the area. We all met in a parking lot at one end of the section on Saturday morning, and after everyone was there, I handed out the supplies and we spread out to clean up! Like I said, the section was not very messy so it only took us about two hours to complete. Two hours in 90+ degree weather was enough though, and we went through quite a lot of bottled water.
n.org: Have DMB fans in other states expressed interest in adopting their own stretch of road in the name of Dave Matthews Band?
CM: There have been several people email me and tell me what a great idea it was and asked how they could get involved in their own states. I know that about 30 states participate in the program, and the best way to get information would be to log on to the state's department of transportation website.
n.org: What sort of a committment have you guys made in terms of future clean-ups of your stretch of road?
CM: I had to sign papers stating that we would clean up that stretch four times a year for two years. There are two mandatory clean-ups, one in April, that coincides with Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful Month, and one in October before winter starts. Hopefully word will spread and we'll have more people show up for future clean-ups.
n.org: Is this the beginning of a movement?
CM: I really hope it is! I know there are a lot of fans that have tried things like getting someone in every state to get the same DMB license plate, so I hope I can get DMB fans in every participating state to adopt a highway. If more fans in other states get involved, it will show the rest of the world that there really are mature DMB fans that take an active role in the community and the condition of the planet.
nancies.org | July 22, 2002