Henning Lions Club cleans up County Highway 16 roadside

Ten Henning Lions Club members, including President Jon Dryer, spent Wednesday, May 13, cleaning County Highway 16 just west of Henning, a stretch of road that serves as one of the town’s visible approaches. The spring highway cleanup supported Lions Clubs International’s Environmental Pillar, one of the organization’s eight global pillars of service, and tied a local volunteer job to the club’s broader push for cleaner, healthier, more sustainable communities.

The work came from a small group in a small town with a strong civic footprint. Henning’s population is listed at about 859, and the City of Henning includes the Henning Lions among its service organizations. That makes the roadside cleanup more than a one-off chore. It is part of the town’s regular public life, carried out by residents who know how quickly litter changes the look of a road leading into town.

The Henning effort also fits into Minnesota’s larger Adopt a Highway program, which depends on volunteer groups to pick up trash along adopted sections of state-owned roadsides. MnDOT provides trash bags and safety vests to volunteers, then maintenance crews collect the filled bags afterward. In 2024, those volunteers removed nearly 29,000 bags of trash from Minnesota highways and rest areas, showing how much of the state’s roadside appearance still depends on unpaid labor.

Lions Clubs International was formed in 1917 by Melvin Jones, and the Henning cleanup reflected that long service tradition in a practical way. With 10 volunteers covering County Highway 16 west of town, the club gave Henning a cleaner roadside edge and improved the first impression for anyone driving in from the west. In a community the size of Henning, that kind of visible difference is immediate, and it is one reason volunteer work still matters where public spaces and civic pride overlap.