Carly Wanna Photo
Daniel Hunt during the clean-up.
Daniel Hunt, who lives near Rosette Street in the Hill, lamented the amount of trash he saw in the neighborhood. So he decided to do something about it.
Hunt helped to organize a two-hour clean-up in the Hill South district Wednesday in coordination with Project Longevity, the local-federal anti-gang violence initiative, as well as with Hill Alder Dave Reyes, the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center branch on Grant Street and members of the Hill South Community Management Team. More than 25 volunteers met at the police substation on Howard Avenue Wednesday afternoon to participate.
“It’s all about unity,” said Hunt as he dropped litter into the large black trash bag he lugged along Button Street.
Tom Breen Photo
Hunt and Stacy Spell.
Project Longevity’s Stacy Spell has coordinated similar litter cleanups in the past. He said he views initiatives like these as positive ways to create peace as well as methods of building up the community.
Eddy Rodriguez.
Publicity efforts including flyers and speeches managed to recruit volunteers like Eddy Rodriguez, who heard of the project through word of mouth and opted to endure the 80 degree weather to “give back to the the community.”
Carly Wanna Photo
Alder Dave Reyes.
Reyes sported a grey shirt alongside other volunteers to spruce up the streets. City Chief Administrative Officer Mike Carter participate too.
Rafael and Joel Torres.
Cousins, Rafael and Joel Torres, enjoyed the day of cleaning, seeing it as an opportunity to make the community a safer place.
“We’re representing the Spanish community: Puerto Ricans,” said Joel Torres, who jokingly called himself the leader of the project.
Tom Breen Photo
Selina Kearson.
When Selina Kearson was a kid growing up on Elm Street in the 1960s, she said, she never used to notice trash in the road or on the sidewalks. After years spent outside of the city in Middletown and Meriden, can’t help but notice all of the broken glass and plastic containers and empty bottles outside of her new home on Dewitt Street in the Hill.
Which is why she was happy to see 20 volunteers with trash pickers and big plastic bags at work, cleaning the sidewalks and the roads of trash.
Thomas Breen contributed.