STORIES OF HOPE

We all need inspiration in these times. And as always, this community delivers. We are sharing these stories of hope in action, every day in the Dayton Daily News. much of that was actually needed and how much you just don’t need — just the frivolous things you don’t need to have every day.”

During the pandemic, Kessler has continued working full-time and renovating a house in Kettering. The goal of the project was to show people that it is still possi- ble to help in some small way, each day, even when life is busy.

“Keep bags in your car, even just a grocery bag,” Kessler said. “If you see stuff, just pick it up . ... I also want to push myself in that way — to be busy and still get a bag a day at least because there’s that underlying goal there to make people real- ize, it’s not that hard.”

Another goalof project is to get kids involved as much as possible.

“It’s the future generations who are going to continually deal with this ever-growing problem,” Kessler said. “I don’t want them to think that this is normal. A majority of them probably already do. But I would like to bring it into their growing consciences.”

When he is not working full-time as a home inspector or picking up trash, Kessler is a photographer, tak- ing photos almost wherever he goes.

This includes when picking up trash, too.

He usually collects in the evening. Kessler has documented every day of The Great Dayton Clean Up journey with colorful sunset photos of, yes, trash.

The last official day of Kessler’s cleanup was Friday. He hopes it inspired at least a few people to use the pandemic to become more mindful of their waste.

People can visit the project’s Facebook page to see how they can do a cleanup challenge of their own.