By LIZI ARBOGAST GWIN
Managing Editor, Tallapoosa Publishers Inc
There’s people who are anti-littering, and then there’s John Thompson. Thompson has been known as the anti-litter man around Lake Martin for many, many years and he was honored at the recent Alabama People Against A Littered State Governor’s Awards dinner.
Thompson is used to winning awards for his environmental efforts, but winning the Don Hines Memorial Award was on a whole new level.
Much like a lifetime achievement award, the Don Hines Memorial Award is the highest annual honor given by Alabama PALS every year.
“It’s really given to people who have been kind of lifelong stewards of the environment,” PALS executive director Jamie Mitchell said. “When you think of whoever is going to get this award, you think of longevity. You really think about somebody who’s given years of their life to this work, and John is exactly that.”
To win the award, Thompson had to be nominated, which was done by Alexander City Chamber of Commerce president and Tallapoosa County Commissioner Steve Robinson.
Robinson has been a longtime friend and supporter of Thompson and his environmental efforts. The two even teamed up for the second Saturday cleanup in Alexander City to start awarding prize money to nonprofit organizations that joined the cleanup.
In addition to his work for the second Saturday cleanup, Thompson was the longtime president of Lake Martin Resource Association where he helped LMRA get involved with Alabama Power’s Renew Our Rivers cleanup. That lake-wide cleanup celebrated 20 years in 2024 with LMRA’s partnership.
“Beyond just cleaning up, there’s environmental education that he’s been a part of and the clean water initiatives,” Robinson said. “He’s done that for decades.”
In addition to being a boots-on-the-ground volunteer, Thompson has also donated financially toward helping purchase cleanup materials and in getting a third Saturday cleanup started in Alex City in the minority community, according to Robinson.
Thompson’s time in anti-littering spans back to the 1970s with the Crying Indian ad, which was a public service announcement on TV discussing keeping America beautiful.
It wasn’t only the PSA that touched Thompson’s heart but a poster his son created in art class with a Crying Indian on it.
“It all went from there,” Thompson said. “I think both (my son) and I both have had this passion for just keeping our roadsides clean, and then when I moved to the lake, there were some areas that hadn’t been touched for 20 years. It just turned my stomach to the point where I said we cannot leave this stuff building up like this.”
Thompson started a small neighborhood cleanup near the Sturdivant area and just started, quite literally, tackling the trash. From there, that developed into larger cleanups and involvement in LMRA.
“I think what John has done has just been great,” Robinson said. “He is a very humble person, very focused, but he’s a leader. He’s helped engage many others. So the strength of what John has done is really a legacy thing. There are other people that he’s engaged that are now involved in doing what he’s done, and he really carries that torch.”