Hundreds volunteer to pick up trash, sweep, plant flowers in annual Philly Spring Cleanup
GERMANTOWN - This weekend hundreds of volunteers rolled up their sleeves for the annual Philly Spring Cleanup. Throughout the morning and afternoon volunteers picked up trash, swept sidewalks, removed graffiti, painted benches and planted flowers.
In Germantown, volunteers split up into teams and went to six different locations throughout the neighborhood.
"Honestly, it makes me feel good too. It’s just a good feeling to be out here helping our community, making it cleaner so it’s not only visually pleasing to us, but it’s also a more comfortable place to be in," said Kenneth Jones of Kappa Achievement Academy.
"I think it’s really part of an effort to change the culture and rethink what it means to really keep Philadelphia clean," said Dr. Darren Lipscomb of Kappa Alpha Psi. "It’s bigger than of course just a week, and this is the kickoff for something that we’ve got to continue to keep going throughout the course of the year."
State Representative Stephen Kinsey (D-Philadelphia) said studies have shown a cleaner community is also a safer one.
"Cleaning up our neighborhood, that’s an important thing, so folks feel proud. You’ll see older folks, you’ll see younger folks, but we all came together because this is our neighborhood. This is our community. We want to keep it clean and we want to keep it safe," said State Rep. Kinsey.
Near the intersection of Morton Street and Chelten Avenue, the organizations We are Talking Trash picked up all kinds of trash including bottles, plastic waste and even furniture and car parts.
"People just dump. Illegal dumping happens everywhere in Germantown," said Rev. Shota Iwasaki of We are Talking Trash.
After several bags were filled with waste, a dump truck with the City’s Streets Department stopped by to haul the bags away.
"There are trash cans all over, almost on every corner on this street. There should be no reason why there are cigarettes and broken glass and T-shirts all over the place when the trash can is right there. If y’all can do their part, then we can do ours," said Ibrahim Soukouna of Kappa Achievement Academy.
In Germantown, 12 organizations participated in the spring cleanup including Kappa Alpha Psi, Kappa Achievement Academy, We are Talking Trash, the 201st Legislative Office, Men Who Care of Germantown, Gtown Radio, Helping Special Friends, Germantown United CDC, Unification Family Ministry, SEPTA, Northeast Action Alliance, We are Smart 2 and Fayton Foundation.