Charles LenhartIt’s only a short walk for Parma resident Charles Lenhart from his beachfront home on Wautoma Beach Road to the Hamlin Parkway; that’s when his self-appointed volunteer work begins, picking up trash over a two mile stretch of road between Route 259 and 260, (North Avenue and Clarkson-Parma Town Line Road). He does both sides and the median about three times a week, all year long. If he finds a dead deer he reports it. “I have to stay on the grass,” he claimed, “to obey the law.”
Parma resident Charles Lenhart is pictured hard at work on the Hamlin Parkway. Photograph by Walter Horylev“I wear a special safety vest given to me by a neighbor,” Charles said. “When I’m working, a number of people will honk their horn to recognize what I am doing and some slow down and thank me. I was brought up in a family that was community minded.” He smiled and said: “I once found a twenty dollar bill and also a couple of one dollar bills!”
Charles was raised in Spencerport, his grandfather was Dr. Charles Lenhart, who was a physician for 50 years in the village. His great-great grandmother was a famous abolitionist, Maria F. Wilbur, who was active in that movement in the 1830-1840 era. A retiree of Bausch and Lomb, Charles began his clean up campaign in 2002. As he says: “I needed exercise and remembered back when the parkway was better maintained before budgets were cut. I try to do it three times a week; that’s my objective. I collect the trash in plastic bags and throw it in with my rubbish.”
In addition to this volunteer work, Charles is an active historical researcher, working for the 1816 Quaker Meeting House in Farmington. He is among several contributors to the book “Uncovering the Underground Railroad, Abolitionism and African-American Life in Wayne County, NY 1820-1880.”
