This weekend a handful of service-minded Dartmouth residents took time out of their sunny Saturday to do a good deed for the community: Cleaning up litter from the side of the road.

Kate Ouellette spent a couple of hours cleaning trash off both sides of North Hixville Rd. from the cemetery to the stop sign at Reed Rd.

She said she gathered six bags of trash in total, including a tire and pieces of carpeting, and at least 20 Fireball nips — the most prevalent item “by far.”

“Up by the Hixville cemetery, there was car versus stone wall, and the stone wall and the Hixville cemetery sign lost,” she noted. “I found all kinds of pieces of remains of the car there too.”

The Butterfly Trail resident was wearing an orange high-visibility vest and mittens made by a friend of hers with hearts stitched on. “I took them out kind of to be symbolic,” she noted. “Because, you know, Dartmouth helping Dartmouth.”

She also carried a dandelion fork to fish garbage out from the leaf litter on the roadside.

Ouellette and others undertook the task following a post on a Facebook group run by Lucy Little Rd. resident Ian McGonnigal urging residents to make use of the good weather to help clean up the town.

“After about a year of cleaning up Lucy Little Road, and posting pictures to Dartmouth Helping Dartmouth, several other community members were asking how they could get involved,” said McGonnigal. “So I decided to start a Facebook page called, ‘Keep Dartmouth Clean’ and group, ‘Dartmouth Cleaning Dartmouth’.”

“In a very short time this group has attracted over 80 members, and we are already seeing other people out on the roads cleaning up their neighborhoods,” he added.

McGonnigal organizes monthly trash pickup walks modeled after a Swedish fitness activity called ‘Plogging,’ in which community members who go for a walk or a run bring a trash bag along to pick up litter at the same time.

“Of the litter we collect, cigarette butts, nip bottles, coffee cups, and bottles and cans, make up the vast majority of what we find,” McGonnigal said. “These materials do not break down, and end up in our water supply, and adversely affect our wildlife and ecosystem, not to mention the eyesore and negative impact to property values.”

“My objective is to raise awareness on littering, and get people more involved in taking action for the environment locally,” he noted, adding that Dartmouth holds its own town-sponsored Greenup Day in April, as does Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust. “Together we can make a huge difference.”

“It’s a good thing,” said Ouellette of the group and its activities. “I’ve done it for years on my own anyway.”

The former Girl Scout leader has lived in the neighborhood for 25 years. 

“I guess once a Girl Scout, always a Girl Scout,” she said with a smile. “But I just feel like it’s our only [home], we’ve got to take care of it.”

And this time of year, there’s no poison ivy to worry about.

“It’s a perfect time,” she added. “Usually we don’t have the luxury of not having snow this time of year, but since we do, it’s great.”

This isn’t the only community service Ouellette will perform this spring. 

Next Saturday, she will take part in the MS Climb to the Top, a fundraiser to support those affected by Multiple Sclerosis. Participants in the climb ascend 1,200 steps to the top of Boston’s Hancock Tower.

But for now, she’s just focused on collecting garbage. As for getting rid of it, she said, she’ll just take it to the transfer station.

“And you know what, if I have to bag it in orange bags to get rid of it, I’ll do that too,” she added. “Whatever.”