Argay and Lents neighborhoods host great clean-up projects

When these two outer East Portland neighborhoods set out to rid their areas of trash, they gather dumpsters full of refuse. See why these volunteers work so hard to clean things up‚

Argay Neighbor Jim Edmonds, one of the nearly 100 neighbors dropping off trash, being checked in by volunteer Bonny Scott at the Argay Clean-up day.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton
“We’ve already had 70 cars so far; it looks like we’ll probably serve 100 neighbors this year,” says Argay Neighborhood volunteer Bonny Scott, as she checks in cars at the early June neighborhood clean-up. “This is the most we’ve had in three years.”

At Shaver Elementary School, Scott is checking in Argay neighbor Jim Edmonds. He says, “This is great! It gives us the chance to clean up the yard and get rid of things.”

Argay Neighborhood Association volunteers Dana McCray and Jane Roffey-Berry don’t mind getting dirty while they help clean up their part of Portland.

Large turnout
Perhaps more important than the good weather, Argay Neighborhood’s chair, Valerie Curry, tells us, is that “we really promoted our clean-up day.”

It wouldn’t be such a successful effort, Curry says, if not for the efforts of the eleven volunteers from the Soccer Club at Parkrose High School. “These young dynamos have been unloading, tossing, pitching, slinging, arranging, and cramming trash and yard debris‚ making the best use of our dumpster space‚ for over four hours. And, they did it with good humor!”

The help of these Parkrose High volunteers was especially helpful, Curry explains, saying, “The leadership of our association presently consists of a small group of “older” neighborhood volunteers, at the moment all females who work hard for their community and who organize periodic special services for the neighborhood, such as a Neighborhood Clean-up Day.”

David Toscano and Connor Leines, two of the eleven Parkrose High School student volunteers help load out up trash in Argay.

Curry says she wants to thank the helpers by name: Matt, Josh, Connor, David, John, Jacob, Nathan, Josh (No. 2), Nick, Jose, and Christian.

“And, we also thank our steadfast neighborhood volunteers Clare & Sharon Mershon, Dana McCray, Alice Ford, Tina Scarborough, Jane Roffey-Berry, Gary Scott, and coordinator Bonnie Scott.

ROSE helps Lents neighbors
‘take out the trash’

Due to the sprawling size of the Lents Neighborhood, clean-up organizers located their dumpsters throughout their area.

“It really helps when people can take their debris and trash just down the street, instead of having to haul it to a central location,” said organizer Judy Welch.

Neighbor Nicole Yates unloads her truck, getting rid of a big old load from our back yard as clean-up coordinator Judy Welch sweeps up at one of the 13 locations.

“We’ve filled two dumpsters here; one with yard debris and one with solid waste,” says Welch.

Overall, this Lents Clean-up filled 13 dumpsters throughout Lents.

This project was partly funded by ROSE Community Development; they sponsored six of drop-box bins.

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