KANE'OHE — Over the past 27 years, Kitti Ford-Scholz figures she has removed hundreds of thousands of cigarette butts and countless bags of trash from the roads in her neighborhood on Kane'ohe Bay Drive and along Mokapu Boulevard.

Most recently she has taken trash collection to a new low. Tied to the family vehicle, the 71-year-old great-grandmother lowers her-self down the embankment to pick up litter that can become mosquito breeding spots.

Ford-Scholz's good work was noticed by a Windward resident who phoned The Advertiser.

At least once a week, Ford-Scholz walks about five miles of roadway. On Mokapu, she also walks the median, with the roundtrip lasting about 3 1/2 hours.

"I've been doing it for 27 years, and I still haven't got it clean," Ford-Scholz joked. More seriously, she said, she picks up the trash because it gives her a sense of accomplishment and "I get so much aloha from people pulling over and saying thank you."

Ford-Scholz is among thousands of residents each year who walk the neighborhoods and roadways to pick up trash and other debris, making Hawai'i cleaner.

Both the city and the state operate anti-litter programs. Although she hasn't joined these programs, she's like some 11,500 city volunteers who last year adopted streams, parks, beaches and city blocks to remove at least 40 tons of trash, said Iwalani Sato, city storm water public education and outreach coordinator.

As part of the city or state program, volunteers are provided collection bags and other material. But Ford-Scholz pays for her own supplies, including a motorized cart that her husband gave her on their most recent anniversary — their ninth.

"She's just got a big heart," said Mark Sullivan, who has known Ford-Scholz for five years. "It takes such a burden off the state and the city to maintain those roads."

Bottles, cans and plastic bags downslope from the road fill with rain and become mosquito breeding spots, and that worried her for a long time until her husband, Rehman Scholz, came up with an idea.

"It bugged her that she couldn't get down the hill," said Scholz, a construction consultant. She had wanted to tie up to the guardrail and lower herself but found that climbing up and down was just too difficult, Scholz said.

So Scholz, 82, came up with the idea of tying the rope to the car. When she is ready to move, he rolls the vehicle forward as she walks along the lower embankment. When she's done she climbs up the embankment.

The result is a mosquito-free neighborhood, Ford-Scholz said.

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.