In another show of community pride, 135 students and 12 teachers from St. Paul’s Lutheran School joined hands in a neighborhood cleanup recently.
The cleanups are continually drawing more participants because of pride in their community, said organizers.
Students and teachers fanned out in groups to remove trash and recyclables littering local streets and sidewalks stretching as far west as Cass Street, east to Ingraham Street, south to Felspar Street, and north to Chalcedony Street, as well as the parking lot of Wells Fargo bank.
The neighborhood cleanups are a continuation of the Pacific Beach Town Council beach cleanups, which once took place on the first Saturday of every month, but have since shifted the focus to the neighborhoods, thanks to first-year PBTC board member Kristi Nelson. “I took volunteers off the beach to spread the cleanups across PB, and it is working,” she said. “With no drinking on the beach now, the amount of trash is greatly reduced.”
Nelson’s approach was to send out a flier to various local businesses, schools, service clubs, churches and hotels, then to follow up with a phone call. When one of the groups would express an interest, coordinators would name the month, date, time and location for the cleanup. The cleanup would then be scheduled on the PBTC’s calendar of events. Following the cleanup, the organization now sends a blurb and photo to Nelson, which she sends to the PBTC and gets posted in the PBTC newsletter and on its website.
The St. Paul’s Lutheran School cleanup is the actually the third cleanup recently. The other two groups to launch into the community spruce-up campaign were Fire Station 21 and Baldwin Academy.
Pacific Beach Middle School participated in a neighborhood cleanup on April 11, and there are two other neighborhood cleanups scheduled on April 22, with participants Crown Point Junior Music Academy and Duck Dive.
Churches, service clubs, schools or businesses interested in participating in a neighborhood cleanup are urged to contact the Pacific Beach Town Council at (858) 483-6666, or visit the PBTC office at 1706 Garnet Ave.