Participants in Saturday’s Temple Challenge Trash Dash will receive these shirts. (Photo Provided)

PARKERSBURG — On Saturday, Stacy Houser is combining fitness and picking up trash.

Houser is calling this first event the Temple Challenge Trash Dash.

The goal is for the participants — 160 people had signed up by Tuesday — to pick up as much trash as possible in Parkersburg from 9 to 10 a.m. Saturday.

While they are sprucing up the city, the participants also are getting exercise and socializing with others in the community, Houser said.

Participants are encouraged to jog, run or walk as they pick up trash along the 3.1-mile routes. There should be plenty of exercise just bending over to pick up trash, Houser said.

Temple Challenge, a fitness program based at the E.L.I.T.E. Sports Center in south Parkersburg, is partnering with the city of Parkersburg and Wood County Solid Waste Authority on Saturday’s litter sweep. Houser is the owner of Temple Challenge.

Wood County Solid Waste Authority is contributing trash bags and gloves for those picking up trash, along with money for the shirts, and the city of Parkersburg is providing the Dumpsters to place the trash in. Parkersburg Police will provide traffic control.

“Safety shirts” will be given to the participants.

The Trash Dash is a great idea, Mayor Tom Joyce said. The city appreciates the efforts of these volunteers in picking up trash in Parkersburg, he said.

The volunteers, who are Temple Challenge participants, others in the community and 36 students from VanDevender Middle School, will be placed in groups of 10-15 people who will scour 13 locations in the city for trash. Each group will have a leader.

Some of the main meeting places will be Parkersburg High School, E.L.I.T.E. Sports Center, Parkersburg City Park, Parkersburg South High School, Bob Evans Restaurant on southside, Western Sizzlin, VanDevender Middle School, Mountain River Physical Therapy, WVU Medicine Camden Clark Medical Center and United Bank.

“From there — in smaller groups — people will split up and do a 5K (3.1 miles) while they pick up trash,” Houser said.

Children will be placed with parents in the free event.

Houser said the Trash Dash is an attempt to get people moving and to make a difference in the community. She hopes it will have a “ripple effect” throughout the city.