Spring may still be a few weeks away but it isn’t too early to talk about that annual cleaning.

Cleaning up the county, that is.

The second annual county-wide cleanup event, set for May 1, is gaining significant momentum.

And that is really saying something considering it was such an overwhelming success last year. More than 1,000 people put their gloves on, grabbed some trash bags and did their part to spruce up our neighborhoods and entire community.

More than 44 groups have already signed up — including at least one representative group from every educational institution in the county. That tops last year’s group total already and doesn’t include all the individual participants.

Last year more than 1,000 participants collected 955 bags of trash and cleaned more than 65 miles of Lawrence County roadway.

This has been a tremendous project that truly snowballed out of smaller events hosted by individuals like Randy Lilly and beautification organizations like Operation TLC (Tidy up Lawrence County) and Ironton in Bloom.

Want to have a positive impact on the place you call home? This event is a perfect way to start.

Looking to make a more long-term committment? Either of the aforementioned organizations or any other civic club would love to have more active and engaged members.

This event will begin at 9 a.m. May 1. Those who want to participate in or sponsor the event may call the solid waste office at (740) 532-1231.

Just because it is winter doesn’t mean we shouldn’t think about doing some much-needed cleaning.

Hopefully, those efforts can then continue through all the seasons.