To many island residents, particularly those who live in the South Beach area, he’s known simply as “the old guy who walks along A1A picking up trash.”
They don’t know his name. They don’t know where he lives. They don’t know why he does what he does.
Truth is, most folks here don’t know anything about him – other than that they see him out there several mornings each week, wearing white T-shirts that read “Please Don’t Litter” or “In God We Trust,” cleaning up after the lazy, inconsiderate slobs who pollute our beachside highway.
And that’s fine with Sam Pennington.
“I don’t do this for any kind of recognition,” the 76-year-old Moorings resident said. “It’s nice when people honk and wave as they go by. They seem to appreciate what I do. Some of them have even stopped to give me gift certificates to thank me.
“But I really don’t want the attention,” he added. “This is the first time I’ve done an interview, and the only reason I’m talking to you is because my wife said I should, so I can tell people about the water bottles.”
So before we go on …
Pennington wants local bicyclists to stop dumping their empty water bottles on the side of the road, especially along the two-mile stretch he patrols – from the south end of The Moorings to the north end of Seagrove.
Yes, he singled out bicyclists, which, I’ve got to admit, was surprising, given that most of the riders I know tend to be eco-friendly. But he said he has witnessed such littering on his walks.
“When it comes to the water bottles, bike riders are the worst offenders,” Pennington said. “I’ve seen them do it. They finish a bottle of water and just toss it on the side of the road.
“I can’t tell you how many of those bottles I’ve picked up.”
There have been too many to count, which is understandable: He has been taking these up-and-back, both-sides-of-the-road, trash-collecting walks every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the past eight years, barring heavy rains or occasional trips out of town.
He can’t remember exactly when he started, but he hasn’t forgotten why.
“I’m a walker,” said Pennington, a Massachusetts transplant who began coming to Vero Beach as a winter resident in 1998 and, despite still owning a wholesale cargo and freight container company on Cape Cod, became a fulltime resident here nine years ago.
“I started walking when I was 43, just for exercise, and I’ve been doing it ever since,” he continued. “One day, I just got tired of looking at the rubbish on the side of the road and decided to do something about it. So the next time I went out, I took along six of those plastic bags from Publix and began picking up the rubbish as I walked.
“And here I am, all these years later, still doing it.”
Not at the same time of day, however.
About 18 months ago, Pennington moved his walks from the late afternoon to the early morning, when the temperatures tend to be cooler.
Usually, he leaves his Sea Mist Court home at 7 a.m. and returns at roughly 8:15 a.m. His door-to-door trip, he said, covers about five miles and includes stops along the way – at The Moorings and Fire Station 6 – to drop off the bags filled with trash.
“Some people let me drop off the bags at their houses, but I can’t stop for too long,” Pennington said. “When you’re in your 40s, you can stop and get going again without any problem. When you’re in your 70s, it’s a lot tougher to stop and then pick up the pace.”
Fortunately, over the past couple of years, his loads have become lighter and his walks have required fewer stops. He believes his efforts, being so visible, have contributed to a reduction in roadside litter along his route.
“It used to be a lot worse,” Pennington said of the highway litter. “There’s still too much out there, but it’s gotten better. I think people see what I’m doing – they see that someone cares about the neighborhood – and it makes them think twice about throwing stuff out of their car windows.
“Maybe it makes them feel guilty,” he added.
It’s not surprising, then, that Pennington said he finds more trash on the northbound side of the road.
“There are a lot of people driving up from St. Lucie County,” he said. “They don’t live here, so they probably don’t care.”
But he does.
Pennington takes pride in our community and sees his clean-up efforts as his civic duty.
“The county won’t pick it up, so somebody’s got to do it,” he said. “I consider it a public service.”
Pennington doesn’t want or expect any pats on the back for his work, but he does acknowledge and appreciate the expressions of gratitude shown by others, especially those he encounters on his walks.
“I always wave back,” he said, “and say thank you.”
He said The Moorings has honored him with parties and presented him with engraved crystal. He might’ve received recognition from the county commission, too, but he wasn’t sure.
“If I did,” he said, “it was a few years back.” It doesn’t matter: That’s not what this is about.
Rather than receive gifts, commendations or gift certificates, Pennington would rather see other island residents so inspired by his efforts that they grab a Publix bag and follow his lead. Indeed, he believes that might already be happening.
“I haven’t had anyone offer to help, but I’ve seen other people picking up rubbish along other parts of the road,” he said. “They do it on their own, but I’d like to think some of them are doing it because they saw me.”
Maybe they are.
Maybe more of them will, now that they know all about “the old guy who walks along A1A picking up trash.”
And because Pennington agreed to talk to me for this column, maybe they’ll all have less litter to pick up along our seaside highway – especially those empty water bottles.