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Community Corner

Thunderstorms Couldn't Wash Away Community Spirit at Brookline Clean-Up

"There were a lot of people honking their car horns in thanks. Hopefully it serves as a visual reminder not to throw stuff out your car window."

Heavy rain fell Saturday morning as a crew of 15 volunteers with the Brookline Earth Day Clean-Up scoured the streets of Brookline, picking up litter. 

“Except for the rain and the wind, it’s been a very rewarding experience,” said Benjamin Haake, an employee of , which hosted the event. “Most of the time, you only really notice your house or your block. It’s eye-opening to see real problem areas like this.”

He gestured toward a hillside on Brookline Boulevard strewn with fast food bags, iced tea cartons and broken glass. Haake was oddly encouraged by what he found.

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“The fact that we only found one hypodermic needle is a good sign,” he said. “I think it’s a sign of this neighborhood beginning to dust itself off and becoming nicer. And, in all honesty, it looked like it might’ve been someone’s diabetes medication."

Sponsored by the South Pittsburgh Development Corporation, the Clean-Up has been an annual event for the past seven years.

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“When we first started it was more of a disjointed effort,” said Keith Knecht, vice president of the SPDC. “But it seemed to grow and the city started pushing it. Now there’s more coordination with the City Action League and the Hall of Representatives from each neighborhood.”

According to Knecht, in recent years the Clean-Up has become intertwined with the mayor’s citywide clean-up efforts. Early on Saturday, city trucks came through to sweep the streets and sidewalks. But the hardest work was done by the volunteers.

“Honestly, it kind of leaves you disgusted with the people who would throw all this trash in the street,” said Judy Jacob, a volunteer from Watertown, NY. She joined in while visiting her daughter, Gretchen, who lives in Dormont.

“It’s dirty, nasty work,” she said. “We didn’t realize how heavy the bags would get or how quickly they would fill up. Every 15 minutes we’d have another full bag.”

“It’s good to clean up the trash,” Gretchen Jacob said. “But it’s also good for people in the community to see us doing it. There were a lot of people honking their car horns in thanks. Hopefully it serves as a visual reminder not to throw stuff out your car window.”

Some volunteers have been doing this on their own for years.

“Before this whole thing started I was doing it in front of my house,” said Eileen Papale, now a board member of the SPDC. “Then I started doing the whole block, then another block and then around the corner. It’s kind of addictive once you start—just keep moving a few more feet.”

“When you do this kind of cleanup it will lead to more people cleaning up after themselves. That’s the whole philosophy of this thing,” fellow board member Bob Beiler said.

“People like Eileen have adopted their own areas to clean,” Beiler said.  “I’ll be driving down the street and see her on the side of the road with a trash bag.  That’s the type of people we have in this organization.”

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