Once upon a time in a Dayton Facebook group, a local was posting pictures of illegal dump sites, and captioning the images, “Dayton Pigs.”
I (Phil) looked at my friend’s the burly trailer in my back yard, and got an idea. I asked the group for money to cover the dump fees, so I could mob out to the desert, and grab a couple couches.
While hauling the trash on back roads to the transfer station, we took a hard look at illegal dumping grounds on the way. This would take more than a couple guys with a trailer on a single Saturday.
I decided to own the name the Facebooker gave to the illegal dumpers, and started a group on that site called Dayton Pigs. I welcomed any willing volunteers to join in a weekly desert cleanup, and asked the public for help with dump fees. Within a few short weeks, we built an army.
So, just to keep it all legit, we formed a board of directors, a board of trustees, and set up a 501(c)(3) non-profit, purchased insurance, and even bought a bunch of bright green pig vests, on which I hand-stenciled our Jolly Wilbur logo. And since we felt this cause was something bigger than just a single town, we changed our name to Desert Pigs.