Jeff Oakes, founder of Love Weatherford—a local nonprofit organization—discovered a love for serving his community through trash cleanups after a life-changing event.
While working in construction almost 25 years ago, Jeff suffered a back injury. This led his wife to pursue a career as a nurse anesthetist and become the breadwinner. She is now a professor at TCU, allowing Jeff to be a stay-at-home dad.
When the Oakes family moved to Weatherford, they settled several miles outside of town. While they loved living in the country, they were surprised by the litter that piled up along their street.
After 2 years of seeing trash on his own road—and more of the same as he drove around town—Jeff decided to do something about it. Taking inspiration from a church-group meeting, he began doing community service in the form of trash pickup. He spent 30 minutes outside cleaning up his street. The next day, he picked up more litter. In 4 days, spending just half an hour each day, Jeff cleaned up his street.
And he was hooked on the good feeling he got from giving back to the community. He decided to clean all the way to town—a distance of 10 miles. Wanting to share this gratifying feeling (and having some free time while his kids were in school), Jeff started a Facebook group to organize cleanups around the city. In April of 2023, Love Weatherford became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The group has drawn over 1,000 volunteers, cleaned up more than 40 tons of litter and debris, and helped inspire other Parker County towns to clean up their communities.
Love Weatherford has spent the last several years working hard to keep streets inside the city free of debris. However, in our recent interview, Jeff shared that they are heading in a new direction, turning their attention toward the countryside roadways in desperate need of their help.
- What’s next for Love Weatherford?
The next thing for Love Weatherford is to keep going and see what opens up to us. Sometimes just continuing on is a big accomplishment, especially with the discouragement that happens.
I would love for our movement to catch on in other areas! Texas deserves to be clean and beautiful.
- What is Love Weatherford’s mission statement?
Our mission statement: “Volunteers making Weatherford cleaner, safer, and more beautiful.”
With so many people involved, we are succeeding!
- What does a typical cleanup involve?
There isn’t a typical cleanup, other than using trash bags and grabber tools. Sometimes, it’s seeing a mess alongside the road, pulling over, and cleaning it up. Sometimes, it’s somebody contacting us asking for help, and there are only two or three people. Other times, it’s a huge group. Or someone will text or post on social media that there’s a couch, mattress, boat, etc. that’s been dumped, and we go out and pick it up.
- What’s helped Love Weatherford keep its momentum over time?
There are countless things that have kept Love Weatherford going. There are way too many to mention all of them, but some of the top things are the good feeling that comes with doing this kind of work, the large number of volunteers, generous donations, and working with people who are completing court-ordered community service.
- How has the Weatherford community shown up in ways that surprised you?
I don’t know if any of these were surprises because our community is so wonderful. Some wonderful examples include people who have written articles about our movement, those who have offered grants, and organizations that have partnered with us on projects. We also have churches, schools, businesses, HOAs, and scouting groups contacting us because they want to help with cleanups.
- Is there a recent moment or story that really captures the heart of Love Weatherford and how your organization gives back to the community?
The other day, we were out picking up trash on Ric Williamson Memorial Highway on a cold morning. Somebody in the community saw us, drove all the way to a coffee shop, and ordered us all hot chocolate! That warmed us up, body and soul. In the summer heat, people sometimes drop off cold drinks, or they pay for our lunch. Love like that is what keeps us going!
Our volunteers also love it when people drive by and honk to show their appreciation! It lets us know that they care, and we aren’t alone.
- Tell us what you love most about Weatherford and the community here.
I love Weatherford’s rich history. If our town looks dirty and trashy, no one is going to care about our past. I believe that by keeping our city clean and beautiful, we preserve our incredible legacy. We are a very special and loving community.
I’d also like to say how very grateful I am for all the volunteers, donors, and people who have done so much in so many ways. They are the ones who have kept Love Weatherford going and growing!