Baystate Jeepers Adopt a Highway, Regularly Give Back to Community

By Danielle Ray, Senior Reporter
Sixteen members of Baystate Jeepers worked together to clean up a stretch of Leominster Road by the Interstate 190 overpass on April 10, an annual community outreach project the club has been doing for well over a decade.
Longtime club member Pat Charon is responsible for overseeing their Adopt-a-Highway program, a nationwide campaign to encourage volunteers to keep a section of a highway free from litter. Charon said the volunteers picked up enough trash to fill 37 large yellow plastic bags, “plus a few things too large to bag,” on the warm, sunny day.
“It was one of our largest results,” she said. “As an organized club, giving back and community service is part of our purpose, so as a group it was decided the Adopt-a-Highway program would be one of our service projects.”
Trash bags, safety vests, gloves and pickers were supplied by Massachusetts Department of Transportation, and the club has a MassDOT contact person, Jim Means. Charon said they always do a spring clean-up at the same location and sometimes one in the fall as well.
Charon and club members Ken Bell, Tommy Bonin, Bri Cormier, Randy Bouchard, Ted Brown, Jeff Brunsell and his son Joey, John Campbell, Aric Cheney, Kathe Crew, Seth Green, Grant Kahn, Dan Kuminecz, Derek Pray, and John Vento volunteered their time for the cleanup, some traveling all the way from Cape Cod and Connecticut.
Baystate Jeepeers, Inc. was founded in 1998 “in response to the need for an organized, responsible group of Jeep owners who like to enjoy off-roading with their vehicles,” Charon said. The Massachusetts-based club currently has 115 members from several New England states.
General meetings are held twice a year to discuss club issues and voting as needed, fall election of officers, what is happening in the off-road community as well as “with other like-minded clubs,” and updates and status of properties they utilize for off roading, Charon said.
Club secretary Lisa Horowitz said they “do a ton” for the community besides highway cleanups, including promoting legal off-roading, an annual Toys for Tots toy drive at Christmastime, Thanksgiving food drives, and more.
“I think giving back is important, so people don’t just see us as a bunch of jeepers driving over rocks and through mud destroying land,” she said. “We follow tread-lightly rules and don’t go out during mud season.
Charon, who has been a club member for 22 years, said they sponsor and volunteer at several annual fundraiser events for charities and non-profit organizations, some of which “are quite large and well known among the Jeep community,” and they hold social events at various places and restaurants “to help support private businesses.”
“Whenever possible, folks should do their best to help make things better, for themselves and others,” she said.
Former longtime club member and town resident Patrick O’Connor was one of dozens of residents who praised the Jeep club for their efforts to keep Sterling clean in a social media post.
“I am very pleased about all the buzz the cleanup has created,” Charon said. “Hopefully it will encourage others. Just doing something around one’s own area can make a difference.”
For more information visit baystatejeepers.com and follow Baystate Jeepers on Facebook and Instagram.