Four-time all-star and two-time world champ Hunter Pence came out of right field to help with a community trash pick, for a group that does this three or four times a week.
Anyone who follows former Giants right fielder Hunter Pence on Twitter may have noticed him enjoying a not-particularly-glamorous retirement on Sunday. “Beautiful day to pick up trash!” Pence tweeted, wearing the unfashionable orange vest and accompanying orange trash bag of someone doing community service to work off some traffic tickets or something.
Beautiful day to pick up trash! pic.twitter.com/kJajnJ5WQw
— Hunter Pence (@hunterpence) January 9, 2022
Another tweet five hours later gave slightly more context. “Thank you to @WeAreTogetherSF @JuneShineCo @RefuseRefuseSF and all the volunteers who came out to help!” he tweeted, standing with the Transamerica building looming behind him. This indicates Pence was rubbishing around in some sort of community trash collection effort.
Cleaning up the city was literally a dream come true today! Thank you to @WeAreTogetherSF @JuneShineCo @RefuseRefuseSF and all the volunteers who came out to help! pic.twitter.com/IrG1BLu121
— Hunter Pence (@hunterpence) January 10, 2022
The Chronicle confirmed this was the case, and they confirmed this because their Total SF columnists Heather Knight and Peter Hartlaub were also in the mix in a volunteer trash-pick up effort by Refuse Refuse. The volunteer group Refuse Refuse (meaning ‘reject garbage,’ get it?) has picked up more than 58,000 gallons of garbage from SF streets in less than a year of existence.
Never thought cleaning up trash could be so fun! Watch in the VLOG: https://t.co/OzEtCbJnjo @WeAreTogetherSF @RefuseRefuseSF @JuneShineCo @hunterpence pic.twitter.com/AVM9v5AK4e
— Alexis Pence (@LetsGetLexi) January 12, 2022
In joining Refuse Refuse, the Chron learned a great deal about what kind of trash the city really has littering its streets. “San Francisco is blanketed in cigarette butts,” the Chron notes. “Other oft-spotted pieces of litter on Sunday were disposable masks, coffee cups and their cardboard sleeves, candy wrappers, chip bags, banana peels and napkins. One-offs included a thank you card, a windshield wiper and a coconut with a straw in it.”
No word on whether Hunter Pence will be joining up in these volunteer trash collection efforts again. But Refuse Refuse does three or four volunteer outings every week, so check their schedule and maybe you can make a diving catch of some street trash with Hunter Pence.
Image: @LetsGetLexi via Twitter
