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Dan Olson
HOPKINS, Minn.

Norm Teigan adopts a highway: Minnesota Sounds and Voices

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Picking up litter
Norman Teigen collects trash along Highway 169 in Edina, Minn. Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012. As part of Minnesota Department of Transportation's Adopt-a-Highway program, Teigen has been cleaning a stretch of Highway 169 and a stretch of Highway 62 for more than five years.
MPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson

Every year, Adopt-a-Highway volunteers pick up an average of 26,000 tons of trash. One of those volunteers is 69-year-old Norm Teigan, who lives in Hopkins. He's been at it ever since retiring as an insurance claims adjuster.

Sure, he picks up garbage. But he finds diamonds in the rough, too. There was the time he picked up a wallet (and returned it to its owner). Another time he picked up a $20 bill. And he's found tools, hats, and other bric-a-brac worth keeping.

He also tends to give his fellow humans the benefit of the doubt when it comes to litter: "People do not deliberately throw stuff," he says. "I have a very optimistic view of human nature."

Click on the audio link above to listen to the latest instalment of Minnesota Sounds and Voices.

Gallery
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Walking along Highway 169
Norman Teigen walks along an exit ramp while picking up litter on Highway 169 in Edina, Minn. Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012. Teigen has been part of the Adopt-a-Highway program for more than five years, and said he usually ventures out about three times a year to pick up litter along his roadways.
MPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson
1 of 3
Picking up litter
Norman Teigen collects trash along Highway 169 in Edina, Minn. Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012. As part of Minnesota Department of Transportation's Adopt-a-Highway program, Teigen has been cleaning a stretch of Highway 169 and a stretch of Highway 62 for more than five years.
MPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson
2 of 3
Buttons on hat
Norman Teigen, a Vietnam War veteran and former Hopkins City Council candidate, displays buttons on his work hat while picking up litter along Highway 169 in Edina, Minn. Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012. Teigen said there is civic pride involved in his volunteer work with Adopt-a-Highway.
MPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson