Orangeburg Ophthalmologist keeps eyes open for litter; McGannon asks ‘Why wait for someone else?’

Dr. Mark McGannon has cared for the eyes of his patients with a warm smile and caring hand for more than 40 years. He’s also taken care of his community by picking up unsightly litter every other Saturday for at least two decades.

McGannon doesn’t see it as a burdensome chore that somebody else should be doing, but takes pride in picking up everything from cigarette packs to drink bottles along Longwood and Columbia roads in Orangeburg.

The 74-year-old says he’ll continue his efforts as long as his good health continues because he wants to be part of the solution to litter rather than dwelling on the problem.

“I think it’s just something I should do. I’ve had people say to me, ‘Why do you do that? They’re just going to throw it out again tomorrow.’ I say, ‘I’m doing it for me.’ I enjoy doing it. I enjoy a litter-free street here. Why wait for somebody else to do it? I can do it,” he said.

“I live on the end of Longwood Road. I pick up from Longwood Plantation to Columbia Road and from the Columbia Road Church of God to the Orangeburg Church of Christ on Columbia Road. I don’t do it every Saturday. It’s probably every other Saturday, but if I see something that obviously blew off somebody’s truck or something, I’ll stop and pick it up,” McGannon said.

The doctor said Orangeburg resident Pat Milhouse is a fellow warrior against litter. He talks with Milhouse about the problem and how they can make an individual difference.

“You can complain that people are littering. I mean, I don’t know who’s littering, but I know who’s picking it up. There’s other people like Pat Milhouse. He comes to see me about once a year, and we talk about trash pickup. He’s proud of the areas that he keeps clean,” McGannon said.

The Cleveland, Ohio native said sometimes people will stop and thank him for his litter pick-up efforts, but he’s hoping that it will be an activity that others will actually participate in.

“It’s know it’s been 20 years since I’ve been doing this. I don’t have the knees anymore, and I’ve never been much of a runner, but I can walk,” McGannon said.

Litter is the one negative McGannon hears about in Orangeburg, but “I don’t take much with complaining about it.

“If it bothers you, fix it. I see the county workers mow and fix things up, but that’s not enough. If you see some litter, why wait for somebody else?”

McGannon referenced an ad 6th District Congressman James Clyburn appeared in years ago, when the congressman spoke of removing a tree branch from a road.

“He said he told his father, ‘Why won’t somebody do something about this?’ His father said, ‘You’re somebody.’ That always stuck with me. I thought that was a wonderful ad. The litter problem bothered me where I live. I said, ‘I’m someone, I can work on that,’” McGannon said.

He continued, “It’s always the same stuff in the same place. So it’s probably not a lot of people who do it. I don’t know, but it’s the same pack of cigarettes, it’s the same fast food stuff. There’s not so many beer bottles or beer cans.

“There’s less of that than there used to be, but it’s soft drink bottles and mostly fast food stuff.”

McGannon said he does not participate in litter pickup for recognition, but because it’s needed.

“When I read about people in the paper doing community service and all that, I’m amazed that I don’t know them, but they don’t do it to be known. They don’t do it to be on the front page of the paper. They do it because they think it’s the right thing to do. It doesn’t require people pushing them to do it. They’re self-motivated people,” he said.

McGannon hopes other people decide to take pride in keeping their communities free of litter.

“I’m happy that somebody saw me picking up litter and saw that this is something that hopefully they could do. People do notice me. People beep and wave when I’m picking up the litter. I don’t know who it is, I just speak,” he said.

His wife, Linda, has also given back to her community in various ways, he said.

“My wife and another lady run the food pantry at our church. She goes there and puts a lot of her time into that. She’s always volunteered. She was on the OCtech Foundation board for lots of years,” he said.

McGannon is grateful God has allowed him to continue his litter pickup work and said he will continue, “as long as I can walk and I’m in good health.”

“Not everyone is healthy enough to do it, but I’ve got the time and I’ve got willingness. I don’t know why people litter. I’m not a specialist in that, but I can pick it up,” he said.