Veteran heading to Texas to pick up tons of trash

PALM CITY, Fla. (CBS12) — A south Florida veteran is about to take a trip to the Texas-Mexico border.

He has an ambitious plan once he gets there.

John Rourke is a husband and father of four kids, and he owns a moving company in Jupiter.

He has a lot to do but for a few days this week he plans to roll up his sleeves to pick up trash about 1,500 miles from here.

Let's get this place cleaned up, man. Gotta start somewhere."

"Let's get this place cleaned up, man. Gotta start somewhere," Rourke says in a YouTube video as he looks at the piles of trash in Texas.

Rourke, a veteran from Palm City, posted video of the staggering amount of trash he saw near the U.S.-Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas.

This is just beyond comprehension, man."

"This is just beyond comprehension, man," he said.

Rourke took the video during a recent visit to Eagle Pass, Texas. This week, he's going back with a few other people to start picking up the garbage.

Rourke spent 16 years in the U.S. Army and served in places such as Bosnia, Macedonia and Iraq.

He now owns Blue Line Moving Company in Jupiter and each year, around the anniversary of 9/11, Rourke goes to a city in the U.S. to clean up trash. He went to Baltimore in 2019 and Del Rio, Texas in 2021. He did not travel anywhere to pick up trash in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"My satisfaction is just the feeling of giving back and helping other people," Rourke said.

He says people are entering the U.S. illegally by swimming or wading across the Rio Grande River from Mexico into Texas and they leave behind piles of wet clothing, shoes, diapers and assorted trash in Eagle Pass, Texas.

I don't even want to walk any more. It makes me, it just makes me sick."

"It's out of control. It has to end. I don't even want to walk any more. It makes me, it just makes me sick," Rourke said in the video he posted on YouTube as he took video of endless heaps of wet clothes, plastic bags, and debris.

Rourke says the authorities in Eagle Pass are overwhelmed and they need help cleaning it up.

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Rourke is also collecting cash donations and hopes to raise $10,000 to give to the Maverick County Sheriff's office in Texas while he's there from September 9 through September 11.

So far, he says he's raised about $6400.

"For me that's the satisfaction, is the giving back. It's the leaving the place better than when I got there," Rourke said.

Rourke says next year he may go to Chicago or San Francisco to pick up trash, helping out others whom he feels could really use a hand.

Rourke says there's still time for anyone who would like to go along to help pick up trash in Eagle Pass, Texas near the Mexican border September 9 through the 11.

If you'd like to participate, or make a donation, you can find out more by going to bluelinemoving.net and click on Giving Back.