A Leesville resident, wise beyond his years, is proving anyone can make a difference.Beau Dowden keeps his neighborhood on Spruce Street, the cleanest in town.
He’s just not as old as you might think. The three year old’s favorite time of the week is the night before trash day. He’ll beg his grandma Shelley Ford to walk the neighborhood.
“Oh he’ll ask,” Ford said. “He asks every Monday, when we are gathering up the trash, is it my day to pick up Spruce Street?”
The two walk from stop sign to stop sign, and collect as much as his plastic bag will allow. Ford said her grandson started this mission a few weeks ago.
Beau’s reasoning is simple.
“I want it to be clean,” Beau said.
He even helps the neighbors get trash off of their lawns. But, litterbugs beware! Beau want’s to know who the trash he is picking up belongs to.
Now, not many three year old kids are this proactive, but Ford said that’s just Beau!
“He is very helpful,” Ford said. “He likes to help with anything you are doing whether you are cooking, or working in the yard, or whatever you are doing he likes to help.”
His family couldn’t be more proud.
“If anybody is outside when he is picking up, they always smile, wave at him, talk to him a little bit,” said Beau’s father Bailey Dowden. “He is loved.”
Ford likes to think he’s helping keep the neighborhood beautiful one piece of trash at a time.She hopes other residents will take notes.
“I actually hope this inspires the whole city of Leesville to clean up more,” Ford said. “If you drive up and down these streets you can see there is a lot to be done in these neighborhoods.”
Because, if a three year old can do it, anyone can.
“I got a bag full of stuff,” Beau said.
