Self-Proclaimed 'Butt Lady' Bringing About Change In Auburn
AUBURN (CBS13) - They throw them down and she picks them up, by the tens of thousands. One woman roams the streets of Auburn trying to rid that city of discarded cigarettes.
Take a drive with Sally Dawley and you might get a few extra glances as you get out of her truck.
Dawley won't hesitate to tell you she is proudly known as "The butt lady of Auburn," she says.
And has been since October of 2014 when she went for a walk one day and got smoking-hot mad.
"I got tired of going on walks and seeing cigarette butts everywhere," she said.
So she started picking them up, with a dustpan, brook and clicker in hand. She piles the smoked cigs in jars
"They're not pretty at all," she says.
More than a few of our viewers have been wondering how many she's picked up.
"I'm now at 256,515. I'm over a quarter million," she says.
It's actually more now. Since we did this interview earlier in December, Dawley hasn't stopped. She is vowing to not let any butt fall through the cracks of the streets of her fine city.
"I don't know how I'm going to quit," she laughs. "I tell people I'm going to have to find a B.A. class, a butts anonymous to be able to stop doing this."
Laughs aside, Dawley has sparked a serious move by elected officials to put out cigarette receptacles and reminders to keep Auburn a butt-free zone.
The sweeping changes in attitude were ignited by a lady who does not like butts and she cannot lie.
"[I'm] the butt lady of Auburn, and I'm proud of it," she says.