Kids, families share neighborly spirit, food, fun at American Cleanup Day in Youngstown

YOUNGSTOWN

Spring cleaning isn’t just for homes. During the Great American Cleanup of Youngstown today, volunteers came together to clean up trash and other debris throughout the city.

Green Youngstown offers cleanup supplies, including garbage bags, recycling bags, trash grabbers, bottled water, gloves and T-shirts to volunteers.

Volunteers clean up parts of the city, and the city’s street department picks up the trash and recyclable items collected.

Karen Humphries of Youngstown, program coordinator with the Garden District Neighborhood Association, said a group from that area helps every year. The Garden District is the lower West Side of the city. Its boundaries are Mahoning Avenue to the north, Mill Creek MetroParks to the south, Belle Vista Avenue on the west and Fellows Riverside Gardens to the east.

“We clean up our whole neighborhood,” she said.

Kids in the neighborhood help. The group made a day of it, following up cleaning with pizza and the kick-off of a children’s garden program at Fellows Riverside Gardens.

The kids “look forward to it,” Humphries said. “They get the T-shirts from Green Youngstown, and they’re thrilled with that. It’s one time that they all meet and do something good.”

Read more about the event in Sunday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.