MARQUETTE — Motorists should be on the lookout as thousands of Adopt-A-Highway volunteers in the popular Michigan Department of Transportation program fan out across the state to collect litter along highway roadsides from last Saturday through Sunday, Oct. 3.

This is the third and final scheduled pickup period of the year.

Every year, Adopt-A-Highway volunteers regularly collect more than 60,000 bags of trash. The popular program began in 1990 and has grown to involve more than 2,900 groups cleaning 6,000 miles of highway.

Beginning Saturday, volunteers wearing high-visibility, yellow-green safety vests will clear up their adopted stretches of highway. MDOT provides free vests and trash bags, and arranges to haul away the trash.

Getting involved in the program is easy. Volunteers include members of civic groups, businesses and families. Crew members have to be at least 12 years old and each group must number at least three people. Groups are asked to adopt a section of highway for at least two years; there is no fee to participate.

Adopt-A-Highway volunteer groups are recognized with signs bearing a group’s name posted along stretches of adopted highway.

Sections of highway are still available for adoption. Interested groups should check the MDOT Adopt-A-Highway website at www.Michigan.gov/AdoptAHighway for more information and the name of their county’s coordinator, who can specify available roadsides.