Top Your Trash: Local woman honors Rumpke workers after Monday’s fatal accident

A woman in Middletown woman started a Facebook event to honor and remember David J. Evans, the 52-year-old Rumpke employee who was struck while collecting trash in Middletown on Monday. Pictured is the Rumpke trash can in Lebanon topped with a vase of flowers. CONTRIBUTED

A woman in Middletown woman started a Facebook event to honor and remember David J. Evans, the 52-year-old Rumpke employee who was struck while collecting trash in Middletown on Monday. Pictured is the Rumpke trash can in Lebanon topped with a vase of flowers. CONTRIBUTED

Hundreds of residents say they plan to leave gifts in memory of the Rumpke employee who was killed Monday morning in Middletown.

Amy Dykes McCloud started a Facebook event page on Monday to organize small tributes to David Evans, who was struck by a car and pinned against the back of the Rumpke truck while collecting trash in Middletown on Monday. The 52-year-old later died from his injuries in the crash. He had worked with Rumpke for 15 years.

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McCloud's idea, which she named Top Your Trash, involves leaving flowers and notes of condolence to the Rumpke employees who will be collecting trash for the rest of the week.

“Wouldn’t it be something to see all the trash cans in town lined up waiting for collection with a little something extra on top?!“ McCloud posted in the description of the Facebook event.

More than 800 area residents have said they intended to participate in the tributes since the Facebook event was first posted. The page quickly filled with pictures of flowers and hand-written notes from local children.

In addition to the flowers and notes, some people have left the Rumpke collectors water and homemade fudge.

But this event isn’t limited to gift-giving to the Rumpke customers in Middletown.

Andy Rainey of Lebanon had her trash picked up on Monday, but her family is leaving flowers and notes out for the rest of the week.

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“I decided to put them out there for him and mine is going to stay out there for a week,” Rainey told the Journal-News.

Samantha Lipps posted on the Facebook event page Tuesday said her husband, a recycling driver for Rumpke, was thrilled to see the community rally behind Evans and the trash collectors.

“I just showed him this event, and he’s so excited to see the letters left for him,” she wrote.

Andrea Gekeler of Germantown summed up in her post on the event page what many have expressed: “I hope these workers feel the love being wrapped around each of them.”

The Top your Trash tributes are planned to continue every day through August 6.

Staff writer Lauren Pack contributed to this story

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