Sunday, May 31, 2015
By ELISE McKEOWN SKOLNICK
YOUNGSTOWN
Downtown was a sea of orange T-shirts Saturday, but the people wearing them left behind many more colors.
They were volunteers planting a variety of flowers, mulching planted areas and removing debris as part of Streetscape 2015.
More than 650 people participated in the 18th annual project of Youngstown CityScape. The downtown area was the focus of much of the work, but planting and mulching took place throughout the city.
The event is “a perfect combination of volunteers, of businesses, of families, of community social groups” coming together to make an impact in the downtown, said Sharon Letson, CityScape’s executive director.
Sperry Rongone of Boardman, a volunteer with Youngstown State University’s Pete’s Pride group, helped for the first time.
Pete’s Pride is a volunteer initiative that helps with, among other things, community outreach efforts at YSU.
Rongone helped out with the planting because she wanted to give back to the community.
“Downtown is being revitalized,” she said. “And it’s a great place to just come and visit now. And I have a lot of memories from being here in my youth, with all the stores, in the ’60s.”
Fellow Pete’s Pride member Germaine Bennett of Youngstown agreed.
“I’m a part of Youngstown, and I’m always interested in beautifying the place in which I live and where I worked for many years,” she said. “I love it.”
The project is worthwhile, Bennett added.
“When all of this is done, then we look just as good as some of the larger cities you see that are all decorated,” she said. “Look how everything is coming back. This really makes my heart feel good. So we’ve got a lot of people who will appreciate this beauty down here. When people are driving through they say, ‘Youngstown must be doing something right.’”
Bennett has helped with Streetscape for seven years.
For Cindy Benedict of North Lima, helping out with Streetscape is a family affair. Various members of her family volunteer each year. They always work on the same Phelps Street location.
“It’s a nice thing to do,” she said. “It takes one morning, and you spruce an area up. And you come back every year, and you see that every year it seems to get less and less destroyed. It’s nice to have something you can keep building on.”
Her daughter, Olesia Benedict, 16, said it’s a really nice thing to do, but acknowledged it’s a lot of work.
“I think it’s worth it because you get to see how much you help the city out,” she said. “It’s really rewarding because not only are you helping yourself, but you’re helping everyone else down here.”
Volunteers were served breakfast and lunch. The food was donated by downtown businesses.
CityScape raised about $25,000 for Saturday’s project, Letson said.
Youngstown CityScape, a nonprofit organization, works to revitalize Youngstown through beautification, education and preservation.