Meet the 87-year-old man helping to keep an Arlington park clean, one piece of trash at a time

ARLINGTON, Va. — On any given day, among the people jogging and biking in Glencarylyn Park, you may bump into Alan Wile.  He's become quite the fixture along the pathways. He's known for his dog treats, but even more so for cleaning up the park, one piece of trash at a time. 

"Well I began because I really enjoy coming to the park. I thought it was attractive and good exercise. And then when I started doing it, I realized there was trash all over the place and it kind of spoiled the beauty,"  Wile said. 

Motivated, he got to work. 

"So I went on Amazon, of course, and got my grabber, my bags, and my gloves and I set off almost every morning," said Wile. 

He's 87 years old and a Navy veteran with 32 years of service, but Wile is still busy. He said he picks up two to three bags of trash per trip.  From plastic utensils to cans. He even picks up odd items like yellow peppers. Some of it just inches away from a trash can. He's been picking up trash since 2020. 

Sometimes he comes across things that don't smell so great. 

"Some of those soaked diapers are really heavy and they're nasty," Wile explained. 

But sometimes he finds a treasure. 

"I've found money, more than once," he said. "I've probably hit close to $400. I'm happy when I find a penny or two as well, and that's the thing.  All these people that throw stuff around, the least they could do is leave me a little money," Wile laughed as he explained. 

He is joking, of course.  He said people have actually tried to give him money, but he refused it.  Yet the community rallied around him in a different way.   People, sometimes complete strangers will often tell him 'thank you' along the trail.  He said that's the best reward of all.  Someone anonymously sent him a box of trash bags, gloves and candy to help on the mission. 

He has just one message to people who visit the park.  

"There are trash bins. Not a lot of them, but they are around the park.  They are available and that's where trash belongs," he said. "Didn't your mama ever teach you," he said with a laugh. "Of course our mamas taught us that they didn't want trash around the house."