Venice couple picks up trash in their neighborhood

VENICE — Mark and Becky Segner of Venice have amassed a lot of evidence about the habits of the residents of south Sarasota County.

But they don’t survey people and they don’t follow folks around.

They pick up our trash.

The Segners, who have lived in the area for about five years, accomplish two goals with their morning walks: Getting exercise and removing trash. They walk about 2½-3 miles in the area almost every day of the week. He picks up trash and she picks up recycling.

The native Minnesotans, married 36 years, carry trash bags as they walk along Jacaranda Boulevard, from a fire station to Border Road, along Border Road from Jacaranda to the Interstate 75 bridge and along Border Road out to the Vicenza development.

Each trip takes about 60-75 minutes.

Two of the most common items they pick up are beer cans and cigarette butts. The most popular beverages they see are Fireball Whiskey and Yuengling beer. Marlboro is the cigarette butt they encounter most. One time they found a whole ham.

“We’re retired, and we like to volunteer,” said Mark Segner, 69. They found a church they like. But he says their heart is in cleaning up after others.

“We joke with each other that our gifts lie in this area, picking up trash,” he said. “It’s a good fit for us because we get our steps in every day. And we like the area to be clean.”

They previously walked and picked up trash in rural Minnesota. Suburban south Sarasota County provides more opportunities to clean up after litterbugs than the Land of 10,000 Lakes, he said.

The Segners are residents of Florida, living in Venice seven months of the year and in Minnesota for five months. On Monday morning, a motorist saw the couple picking up trash and stopped to take their picture. The woman identified herself as a member of the Venice In Bloom team, an arm of Venice Area Beautification, Inc.

The Segners say trash pickup is a great couple activity.

“We figure we’re walking anyway. We might as well pick up garbage,” Becky, 66, said.

The Segners say a 76-year-old neighbor who also picks up trash, and is known to Venice and Sarasota County officials, got them Keep Sarasota County Beautiful T-shirts like the one Becky is wearing in the accompanying photo.

True to their Minnesota heritage, the Segners responded to the kindness of the VABI volunteer by saying that when they go downtown, they are impressed by how clean the streets are.

“It is fabulous down there,” Segner said. “Whoever does those streets, picks up the litter, they do a fantastic job.”

Segner, a retired postal worker, says there’s no connection between his being a retired mail carrier and his desire to walk now.

“I only walked in Minnesota for a very short time,” he said. “I was smart enough to switch to a driving route. My fingers were freezing off.”

The Segners were asked to create a profile of the people that drive along the streets they clean up.

“Drinkers and smokers,” Becky said.

And litterbugs.