JUST a few weeks ago I wrote a story about Michael Brown, a gardener from Woodend who voluntarily looks after the front verge gardens in his street.
I started the story by saying that every street would love a man like Michael.
This story today is about another man who goes above and beyond for his local area.
His name is Andy Brodersen, and for the past 11 years he has been walking around Collingwood Park every morning at sunrise for at least two hours.
Nothing unusual in that, it’s what he does on these walks which makes his story so interesting.
Andy has become the volunteer street cleaner and each week picks up hundreds of pieces of litter that have been tossed by passers-by.
Andy will turn 87 in a few weeks’ time and he’s joined part-way on his morning walks by his 81 year old wife Aase.
Both carry a bag and a rubbish collection stick and on most days it is at least half-full of discarded items such as food wrappers, cans and plastic bottles by the time they get home.
“People ask me why I do it, it’s a simple answer, I care about keeping my suburb clean,” he said.
“Every morning other walkers say hi, cars drive past with driver’s tooting their horns and people even go on the local Collingwood Park Facebook page talking about what I do.
“But I don’t do it for recognition, I do it because I am concerned about the rubbish that just gets thrown on the streets. I’d love to see more people embrace keeping their area’s clean, more importantly I’d rather see people stop throwing rubbish out of their car windows.”
Andy’s commitment to his city goes much deeper than just picking up bits of paper and bottles. He has been a driving force in the Ipswich Lions Club for years and was behind establishing breakfast clubs for students at more than 12 schools.
At the moment Andy isn’t happy with the city council after they removed numerous public bins in Collingwood Park. He says they told him the bins weren’t getting used, but he says “that’s rubbish”.
