Sometimes activism means marching and making signs, and sometimes it means bagging up a bunch of trash. Someone posted a message on our neighborhood listserv a few days ago, asking for volunteers to help with a neighborhood clean-up day. We jumped at the chance to do it because we’ve really wanted to get more involved in our local community and meet more of our neighbors. It’s been a challenging summer so far for a lot of reasons, and similar to the march – we felt like it would be good to just get out and do something to try to make a difference.
So of course I didn’t take any pictures while picking up trash – I was very focused on distancing and keeping my mask on – but the picture above is the glorious bounty we harvested from our streets and sidewalks. We used some of those trash grabber things (the official name, obviously) to pick up ALL MANNER of items from the few blocks we got assigned to clean. We met people, enjoyed the perfect weather, and got more familiar with a few streets in our community that we don’t spend as much time on because, to be honest, there is a lot of “entrepreneurial” activity.
It felt so satisfying to add to the pile of garbage that got picked up from the streets, and one of the women we met – who is running for the Board of Education – invited us to her birthday party tomorrow so we can have cake together/far apart from each other on the sidewalk in front of her house. I know my neighborhood faces a lot of challenges, but this is why I love living here more than anywhere else I’ve ever lived.
Ell Gee Writes 