For some lucky volunteers, it literally pays to help clean up Vermont each May.

by Compass Vermont

Saturday was Green Up Day, the annual statewide ritual in which thousands of Vermonters pull on gloves, grab green bags, and walk the state’s roadsides clearing out whatever winter and human carelessness left behind. The total tonnage is staggering — but the strange specifics are what make the day, and one thread on r/vermont has become the unofficial annual ledger of the weirdest finds.

This year’s haul, as documented on r/vermont, did not disappoint.

The crown likely goes to user WhatTheCluck802, who came across a giant femur — possibly moose, possibly cow — and added it to what they describe as a personal bone collection housed in a stainless steel produce basket on their back deck. “I trotted up the road with a green bag in one hand and this massive bone in the other, skipping with glee,” they wrote. They are now considering acquiring a second basket.

In the genuinely useful category: user matt_vt found a “minty” Burton ICS snowboard, undamaged. User Bandit_mochi reported that someone they were with picked up a $100 bill. User SheaF91 fished a cheetah-print Stanley thermos out of the bushes near a Price Chopper.

The booze and party supplies category was, predictably, well represented — a handle of Fireball, a full can of whipped cream (minus the gas), and a sealed box of fruit-flavored nitrous canisters all turned up in different parts of the state.

The bones category was, less predictably, also well represented. Beyond WhatTheCluck802’s femur, user Jeb_802 posted a photo of their own osteological haul, and user teamlazerhawk picked up a raccoon skull. User AntelopeParticular70 found an entire plastic bag of bones, which they are choosing to attribute to hunters rather than the opening credits of Law & Order.

Other notable items: hologram baseball cards scattered across one stretch of road, a car axle, a bright red button, and a single dime.

The thread, now an annual fixture, captures something the official tonnage totals cannot: that Green Up Day is also a kind of slow-motion archaeological dig of Vermont life. The whipped-cream cans and Fireball handles tell one story. The undamaged snowboard, the $100 bill, and the femur destined for someone’s deck collection tell another.

Green Up Day was launched in 1970 by Gov. Deane C. Davis, after Burlington Free Press reporter Robert S. Babcock Jr. walked into the governor’s office the previous spring and pitched the idea. Vermont remains the only state in the country without an Adopt-A-Highway program — Green Up Day is the grassroots alternative, and has been since the first one drew roughly 70,000 volunteers onto the roads. The full r/vermont discussion is here.