Asher Joseph photo
Fair Haven's youth cleanup crew at work on Chapel St.
When her shovel failed to pick up a plastic zip-up bag, Fair Haven Livable City Initiative (LCI) Neighborhood Specialist Carmen Mendez stooped to grab the plastic trash with two fingers.
“Be careful,” warned a teen member of Fair Haven’s Youth@Work Clean Team, “those are the bags that people sell weed in.”
“Even when you’re old, you learn something new everyday,” Mendez chuckled.
That was the scene Tuesday morning, during the latest outing of the Youth@Work Clean Team. The crew has been beautifying Fair Haven since mid-June, street by street.
The group met at Chapel and Ferry street at 9 a.m., and spent the next three hours working their way towards Criscuolo Park.
The team’s responsibilities include clearing sewer grates, picking up litter, and handing out LCI bags to the street’s residents. “[The bags] include coupons for the city dump, pet care info, and resources to address any issues with housing,” said Grand Avenue Special Services District (GASSD) Director Erick Gonzalez, who helped lead Tuesday’s effort.
Gonzalez is thankful for the “gratifying” opportunity to mentor the Clean Team: “It can be hard to relate to someone who’s older, but I’ve really gotten to know these kids. When we take a break in the shade, we like to chat about their goals — their fitness goals, their entrepreneurial goals,” said Gonzalez.
Thanks to a grant from the city, the Clean Team’s sponsors are able to pay the students for up to 25 hours of service per week. “Most of these kids, it’s their first time getting paid and handling money, so they’re always asking, ‘What do I with this?’ or ‘Where do I go to deposit this?’ It’s a pleasure to help them cash their first checks,” said Gonzalez.
The Clean Team is a collaboration among Youth@Work, the Livable City Initiative, Junta for Progressive Action, Bregamos Community Theater, and Clifford Beers Community Care Center.
Mendez shouted out Alders Sarah Miller, Frank Redente, and Caroline Tanbee Smith, who were “instrumental to making this happen.”
“The community is grateful for the work we do. People will come out of their homes to say thank you. Since we’ve started, people have given us water, ice cream, pizza, and so much more because what we do helps them take pride in their neighborhood,” said Mendez.
As the team passed a cross street they had cleaned the day before, the team noticed pieces of litter scattered around the base of a tree.
“I’ve stopped taking the kids back down the same route, because it’s so demoralizing for them to see their hard work gone to waste,” Mendez said. “We can clean an entire street and the next day, it will be like we never even touched it. You know, saying thank you and giving us water is nice, but it would be even nicer if you could do your part to keep our city clean.”
Mendez places special emphasis on the values of teamwork and good-faith effort. “We are preparing them for the real world. We teach them what it means to dress appropriately, to be on time, to put in the hard work, to greet people and be polite.”
Rather than lecture the Clean Team on these values, “[Erick and I] lead by example. We aren’t standing by and being the overseers. We’re standing next to them, doing the same hard work.”
Each team member was equipped with a different tool; some had shovels, while others used rakes and trash pickers. In order for any student to deposit trash in a bag, they had to use another student’s tool for support.
“Now, when they see me clearing out a sewer grate by myself, they immediately come over and help. Some kids, you have to be a bit harder on them, but they’ve all grown so much over the course of the program,” added Gonzalez.
Yarieliz Lugo, a student at Fair Haven School and the Clean Team’s youngest and especially dedicated member, held up the back of the pack with Mendez. “I love my job, just cleaning and stuff. And it’s all about teamwork, which I really like,” she said, to which Mendez smiled and gave her a wink.
As the Clean Team began to wrap up for the morning, they received heartfelt thanks from their neighbors. “Next time, I’ll have rice and beans ready for you,” said one passerby.
Another dismounted her bike to tell the students what their efforts meant to her: “You know, once upon a time, I lived in a beautiful city, and now people are littering everywhere. So, it makes me glad to see you all out here. God bless you all.”
David Fulton, a rising sophomore at Wilbur Cross High School, said that “those words of encouragement keep us going. It’s not the most glamorous job, so it’s nice to know that I’m making an impact.”
By noon, the team had filled between 15 – 20 bags, according to Mendez’s best approximation. “It may seem like a lot, but that’s how many we usually get.”
Following their summer cleanup efforts, the students are eligible for free lunch at the Fair Haven School, but most opt to purchase their own meal. Mendez isn’t surprised.
“I took a look at the lunch the other day, and it was just a yogurt cup about this big.” Mendez pinched her fingers to the size of a sample cup. “There were also two packs of granola and a piece of fruit. That was it. It’s ridiculous. They’re growing kids, they need healthy and filling food.”
On the trek back to the Junta for Progressive Action building at 169 Grand Ave., the students were stopped short when a man emerged from a house on Saltonstall Avenue with a knife in hand. He ran to the house across the street and stabbed the door. A family emerged from the home, and got into a verbal altercation with the knife-wielder. Mendez called the police.
Just minutes later, Gonzalez instructed the team to pick up the pace as a man jumped out of his car before throwing shoes and yelling at a woman standing in front of Jay Nez Groceries on Ferry Street. Mendez gave another call to the officers on duty.
“It’s scary, you know? I am responsible for these kids, and I need to take care of them.”
According to Lugo, this doesn’t happen every day. However, she promised that the day’s events would not deter from coming back through Aug. 2 to “make her community beautiful.”
