"Morning," one walker said to a man sweeping the streets in front of the Trolley Stop.

"Morning," he replied as he continued to sweep the remnants of cigarette butts, napkins, beer cans, fast food wrappers and even diapers left on the streets over the weekend.

"Morning," another passing couple taking their lab for an early morning walk said to the man with the broom. "Are you guys just volunteers? We saw you here last week doing the same thing."

The man slows his pace, but continues to sweep and seizes the opportunity he is given.

"I would shake your hands," he gestured, "but my gloves are a little dirty. Bobby Brandon. Nice to meet you."

And he began to explain what it was that he was doing.

Each day, Brandon wakes up around 4:45 a.m.

He puts on his running attire and shoes and out his Wrightsville Beach door he runs, taking different paths each time.

On Mondays, though, Brandon usually runs from his home, close to the north end water tower, down the mile and a half stretch to the south end water tower and back.

"When you run," Brandon explained, "you really get to see things."

Other than the beauty of the beach town he’s lived in for nearly 20 years, what he sees is a lot of trash. So, when he arrives back home, Brandon loads the back of his pickup with a broom, a push-broom, a dust pan, garbage bags, gloves and a rake and returns to the place he recently passed.

First, Brandon sweeps the streets, beginning at the northern end of the downtown district, making small piles along the curbside that he later pick ups on the second leg of his Monday morning routine that formed from an idea he had on the run.

"Instead of being a finger-pointer, I decided to do something about it," Brandon said of all the litter that bothered him so much.

"If all of us take the time to pick up just one piece of trash, gosh, we could pretty much clean up the world," Brandon said.

From that thought, came SAM.

"SAM (an acronym for Stop a Minute)," Brandon explained, "Is designed to educated people that it’s okay to pick up trash. Instead of stepping over the trash just stop a minute and pick up that one piece of trash."

Though Brandon picks up more than his fair share, he hopes that his weekly demonstration might inspire others to do the same.

"We live in such a beautiful place, we’ve got to keep it pretty," Brandon said. "It’s not up to the town. It’s up to us."