Cleanup teaches kids responsibility

Eighty participate in center-city event.

By YADAMSUREN BORCHULUUN of the Tribune’s staff
Story ran on Friday, June 16 2000

About 80 children from the central-city area and from the Fun City summer program at Douglass High School wore orange safety vests and brown gloves yesterday while cleaning the Douglass Park area.

The kids collected all kinds of trash as part of the Sixth Annual Spring Cleanup. The traditional effort, coordinated by Columbia police, had been suspended for a few years because of reorganization within the department.

"The main goal of the cleanup is to teach children the importance of keeping the community clean," Columbia police Sgt. Danny Grant said. "It demonstrates community pride and crime prevention."

"The cleanup is done to motivate everybody in the neighborhood, to encourage children to behave well," First Ward city councilwoman Almeta Crayton said.

The children worked with supervisors in three different age groups: 6 to 8, 9 to 11, and 12 to 14. Besides helping the community, they also competed to see who could collect the most trash by weight.

Southside Optimist Club donated prizes, including a grand prize bicycle that will be awarded by drawing. Winners in each age group will get a $35 Toys R Us gift certificate.
The children worked for 2½ hours, collecting everything from cans and cigarette butts to rocks and tires.

Lance Bialczuk, 12, collected three bags of cans and newspapers. One of the bags weighed five pounds. "It is cool," he said.

Adriana Bufond, 9, collected three bags totaling 24 pounds of trash. She said she enjoyed cleaning and preventing pollution.

City waste minimization coordinator Cynthia Mitchell and four other volunteers taught children how to recycle. "Recycling education is important and beneficial because the city is running out of landfill" space, said Bill Thompson, recreation specialist with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.

Deatre Sanders, 7, was among the youngest group of volunteers. He collected soda cans, a large chunk of white scrap wood, a lot of paper and a toy gun. "The gun was fake," he said. "I liked cleaning up."

Deatre worked with seven other children from Perfect Formula child-care center. Co-director Alma Tapp said the center has participated in the cleanup several times to teach children community service. "The kids loved to collect trash."

A yard-judging contest was also held in conjunction with the cleanup. A group of five judges graded yards on several criteria, including absence of weeds and trash, overall condition and landscaping.

The grand prize will be a large cooler, and eight family picnic sets will be given to winners in different regions of the central city.

"The cleanup came off really well," Thompson said. "It helps the neighborhood in the long run."