District 1 Clean-up Cleans Up!!

The neighborhood held another successful community clean-up on October 11 at Harding High School. We had fabulous help from our volunteers, including about fourteen young men from Boys Totem Town. What would we do without their energy and muscle power??!! And we had three crews picking up stuff from elders in the neighborhood – next year we’ll need a fourth crew, there was so much work to be done! What a fantastic job by the senior pick-up crews, the Totem Town crew, and each volunteer who spent a sunny Saturday helping make our neighborhood even more beautiful. Thanks to everyone for a job well done. Here is what we accomplished…

We managed to provide almost two full truck-loads of reusable furniture and goods for Bridging – the organization that provides a new start for women and families leaving abusive relationships. We also salvaged tools and supplies for the Totem Town Community Garden, and for local groups of kids who play hockey!!

We recycled almost two dumpster loads full of electronics, and thanks to the volunteers who were separating metals from plastics, we had more than a dumpster full of metal that will be recycled. We had 30 bicycles that will be donated to people who need a way to get around the city. And we had a record number of fluorescent bulbs that will be safely disposed of. Lots of tires were collected for recycling, and a truck full of old appliances.

Every year there seems to be particular type of material that everyone is getting rid of, and this year it was construction waste – drywall, plywood, cement debris and so on. But this also seemed to be the year for everyone to get rid of their old gas-powered lawnmowers!! Are we going back to hand-powered mowers, or is someone doing great business selling new power-mowers?

A special thanks this year to Little Oven, who donated the pizzas to feed the hungry hordes of fabulous volunteers, and to Culvers, who donated certificates for free frozen custard to a large portion of those who came to drop off stuff, as well as to our volunteers. We hope that our residents will stop by these businesses and thank them for their commitment to our beautiful corner of St. Paul.