SUCCESS! The Peachtree Minders Voluntary Trash Pick Up Team Made our Greenbelt Cleaner Than It's Been in Years, if Not Decades!!!

News Update Saturday, April 12, 2025, 5:00 PM CST: If you'll walk outside and take a good look at the Greenbelt surrounding and running through Peachtree Village, you'll notice the BIG DIFFERENCE our all volunteers from Peachtree Village, the Peachtree Minders, made today! In just a couple of hours, some of our neighbors and a few of their kids took a little bit of time to DO SOMETHING good for all the rest of us. Instead of complaining, instead of pointing fingers and, especially, instead of doing what our Old HOA Board used to do, WHICH WAS NOTHING, other than to send nasty letters to our neighbors, accusing THEM of throwing trash down or not picking it up if it was anywhere near their home or yard, threatening them with fines...we just decided to become the solution that had been there all along!

Of course, there are some people, mostly passersby, often motorists who while driving by or through our community throw their litter out the window. Yes, it's also true that some of the bulk trash ends up next to our street curbs due to lack of information about when and where to place bulk trash or fallen tree limbs, something we are, now, going to do a better job of communicating, but to do so in a positive, friendly way.

There will be more we can do. For instance, we even want to do some clean up on the east side of Spring Creek Parkway, which is adjacent to our community, at the same time as we approach the City of Plano for a little better attention to keeping the roadside verges (the strips of groundcover consisting of grass or other plants) free of litter.

In the meantime, though, by simply removing the trash ourselves, the effect on what future litterbugs will do is very interesting. For some reason, most people who litter or dump trash tend only to do so where there already is some visible litter or dumped items. There is, apparently, something inside the litterbug/dumper mind that, subconsciously, looks for places where it already seems like trash or litter has been tossed on the ground. It's like, somewhere deep down, they don't want to be the first one, but once they perceive littering or dumping has already begun in a given location, they give themselves permission to do the same. It's something akin to the mob mentality--Monkey see; monkey do!

Sure, we could have sat around and decried this attitude all day and night (such as what our former HOA Board did) but now, we've already begun to make it a whole lot more likely that litterbugs and dumpers passing by or through our community will be much more likely to go somewhere else!

One more thing. We know a lot more of our Peachtree Village neighbors wanted to be a part of today's first ever Peachtree Minders trash pick, but you had other obligations or maybe your back was sore. No worries! There is another way YOU TOO can be a Peachtree MInder--All you have to do is, the next time you go outside and see any sort of litter on the ground (well not today of course :-) have a little plastic bad with you, pick it up, put it in the bag, take it home and dispose of it properly! Easy peasy! Everyone of us can be a Peachtree Minder, whether you join us next month to make it a team effort or whether you do so on your own, we can all be part of the effort to make and keep Peachtree Village the cleanest neighborhood in all of East Plano, Plano, North Texas and beyond!