The Village of Homewood held a successful annual spring cleanup on Saturday, April 19, with about 80 volunteers.
Events Manager Marla Youngblood thanked the volunteers for coming out despite the cold rainy weather.
Volunteers gathered at Homewood’s Public Works Department to collect tools and find out which group they were in before heading out to their designated location.
There were 11 groups in total, each working at their locations from 8:30 a.m. until noon.
Married couple Jim Schreiber and Karen Klyczek were in group seven, where they were assigned to work on Dixie Highway. This was their first year participating, Klyczek said.
“We started doing this on our own actually. We just go out with pickers and buckets and we clean up,” Klyzcek said, adding, “we saw they were having this event so we thought we’d join in with other like-minded people in the community.”
Not far from them was group eight working by village hall, where there were also a lot of first-time participants.
“This is our first year doing the Village of Homewood, but we’ve done other communities out here. We’re with Jack and Jill of America, an African American family organization,” said Latonya Ford, adding, “we have one of our children here. Community service is part of our mission.”
“We wanted to give back to the community,” said Kimberly Mitchell, vice president of the Jack and Jill Organization.
A new resident of Homewood, Beata Fiszer, also wanted to help out the community.
“I really like doing community events, so I thought this was a great way to meet people, and I also like to help out,” Fiszer said.
Homewood Public Works Landscape Supervisor Bryon Doerr expressed positivity towards getting a chance to connect with residents.
“Public Works has so much on their plate to do, so it’s nice to know the people that we’re working for. It’s nice to get out and mingle with the community,” Doerr said.
Doerr was impressed by the number of volunteers this year compared to when he first started.
“I’ve been doing this for eight years, and it was really slow, we had like five people. This is the biggest turn out we’ve ever had,” he said, adding, “our marketing department is really on top of things, so I think that has a lot to do with it.”
According to Village Manager Napoleon Haney, there’s normally about 40 to 50 participants annually.
The village is aiming to increase the event to twice a year.
“The goal is to do this twice a year, once in the spring and midsummer,” he said.
Haney has made it a personal habit to keep the village clean all year long, he said.
“I love picking up garbage around my home, around my block, the village hall,” Haney said. “I think everybody loves to see Homewood clean.”