Volunteers continue to clean Mill Park area streets

Folks from both Hazelwood and Mill Park neighborhoods come together to remove litter and trash from outer East Portland streets. See why they keep uniting in this effort …

Volunteers keep on picking up garbage and littler in front of Midland Regional Library, even during a downpour on “street clean-up day”.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton

The threat of rain – and a couple of brief-but-soaking downpours – didn’t stop volunteers from heading out on Saturday morning, May 14, on what has become a monthly mission to remove garbage and litter from streets in the Mill Park and Hazelwood neighborhoods.

Meeting up in front of the shuttered fabric store at SE 122nd Avenue and Stark Street, some 35 volunteers fanned out from that intersection, snagging trash along the way.

When it rains and when it stops, Mill Park neighbor Jack – with his mom, Liza Dyer, and her friend, Caitlin Cunningham — just keep picking up litter along SE Stark Street.

With clipboard in hand, muralist Alex Chiu – he’s also a Board Member of the Mill Park Neighborhood Association – is ready to check in another volunteer.

“Yes, we’re having another neighborhood street clean-up; we’ve been organizing these for quite some time now, under the leadership of the Mill Park Neighborhood Association Chair, Trevor Hopper,” remarked Alex Chiu, one of the organizers of the cleanup. “It’s important to do something like this, because a lot of trash that is neglected in the neighborhood and it piles up.”

Pitching bags of trash in the dumpster is All Saints Catholic School student Xander Pederson.

Heading out for another round of litter-snatching is Hazelwood Neighborhood Association Chair Arlene Kamura.

“Doing this on a regular basis make our neighborhoods more livable,” Chiu went on. “Also, it gives neighborhood residents the opportunity to know that people are taking care of the neighborhood, watching out for it, and taking care of it!”

Making their way north along SE 122nd Avenue, these volunteers find plenty of carelessly discarded materials to pick up and stash near East Burnside Street.

“We’re doing what we can to keep things nice and livable,” Chiu added.

>> On our Front Page: Yes, that’s Multnomah County Commissioner District 3 Jessica Vega Pederson, picking up litter, in the rain.

© 2022 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™

 

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