Tom Ward has made some positive changes to his morning routine.
He gets his coffee, reads The Villages Daily Sun and works on the crossword puzzle every morning at 5:30 a.m. He makes his breakfast and then goes for his morning walk if the climate isn’t too scorching. If the Florida heat becomes intolerable, he goes for a morning walk first and then returns to his home in the Village of Chatham to prepare breakfast.
Ward does this four to five times a week, and on his walks, he picks up rubbish that he encounters. He loads the newspaper bag with any paper, cigarette butts, wrappers and other trash he finds. If the bag fills up before he finishes walking, he stops at a mail station to dispose of the trash and pick up more.
“I just enjoy doing it,” he said.
Since moving to The Villages in 2003, Ward has strolled throughout the neighborhood picking up rubbish. He normally takes a two-mile walk around his neighborhood.
“It’s just kind of a habit of mine,” he said. “If I see something, I pick it up.”
If he spots something, he will pick it up, even if he is merely going around the neighborhood with no aim of discovering trash or walking through The Villages squares without a bag.
Ward has been picking up trash since before he moved to The Villages.
He used to roam the halls picking up rubbish and keeping his classroom clean when he was a high school teacher. He became emotional when he learned that the school’s janitor usually smiled when she entered into his room because it was so clean, he claimed.
Ward’s excellent deeds have been noticed by his neighbors and residents.
“I think it’s very selfless,” said Bobby Wallace.
Wallace, a resident of Chatham, observes him strolling and picking up rubbish and occasionally speaks with him as he passes.
Ward will also deliver newspapers to people’s doors and assist them in other ways, according to Wallace.
“He does a lot of things in the neighborhood, and we are thankful for the things that he does,” he said.
Ward intends to keep walking and picking up rubbish as long as he is fit enough to continue following his passion.
“It just makes our world a better place,” he said. “To me, it’s part of living in The Villages. It’s just who I am.”