Most days, Steve Kelsey is up before the sun rises for his morning walk.
"I like to get a lot of steps in every day," he explained.
And for those walks, in addition to his tennis shoes, Kelsey puts on a pair of work gloves, grabs his trusty reacher tool and a bucket -- so he can pick up trash along the way.He's been doing it since 2022 when he first moved to Chicago and fell in love his historic condo building, but not all the trash in the streets around it.
"I decided why don’t I just try to pick some of this up while I’m getting my walk in, so I just started around the block, and then I would look up the street and say, 'OK it’s very windy that it’s just gonna end up down here,' and so I started doing that, and then I just kinda got addicted to it, and just kept going," he recalled.
Kelsey spends about two to three hours a day picking up trash and usually ends up having to empty his bucket three to four times along the way .
Steve Kelsey with the reacher tool and bucket he uses to pick up trash in Lakeview on his walks.
"I do from Irving Park to Montrose and Broadway to Marine," he said. Over the years, Kelsey's become a familiar sight to people in Lakeview, including Karyn whose daughter lives along his route.
"She’s just is so appreciative. We all are. So thank you. And we need more of it," she said.
Kelsey gets that kind of reaction from a lot of people.
"90% of the time it’s thanks for doing that," he explained.
In fact, he heard "thanks for doing that" so often, he started an Instagram page with the handle: @stevedoingthat. On it, he chronicles his daily walks with maps and the buckets of trash he picks up - hoping it might inspire others to lend a hand.
"If everybody would just pick up one piece of litter a day and just develop a habit," he said adding that it's a good feeling to give back to the neighborhood in such a simple way.
Steve Kelsey, a Difference Maker.
