ELIZABETH – More than 400 volunteers from city, county and private organizations and institutions participated in the fifth annual Elizabeth city-wide cleanup event last week.
The Earth Day event kicked off outside the City Hall, where participants registered and joined their designated teams. The teams that participated in the event included the Elizabeth Fire Department, Elizabeth Police Department, St. Genevieve’s School, the Historic Midtown Elizabeth Special Improvement District, the Elizabeth Avenue Partnership, Union County College, Groundwork Elizabeth, The Peterstown Push Brooms, Bank of America, First Bank Americano, and H.E.A.T. from Wakefern. Following the opening ceremony, the teams set out to clean various sites throughout the city.
The Earth Day event concluded at Carteret Senior Living with a luncheon award ceremony for all participants. The coveted Golden Broom Award went to the Historic Midtown Elizabeth Special Improvement District for the most trash collected. The Silver Broom Award went to the Elizabeth Avenue Partnership and the Bronze Broom Award went to the UCC/ESL Class at Grover Cleveland Middle School and NJ Youth Corp/UCVTS.
“At the Historic Midtown Elizabeth SID, one of our initiatives is geared towards programs that support the beautification and going green throughout the city,” said Executive Director Janice DeAvila. “Every year this event has become more successful in large part due to all the volunteers and sponsors who look forward to working together at addressing environmental issues.”
09/02/08
I would like to volunteer my services for the next clean up event. My name is Maria Melendez and I am owner of Liberty Property Solutions, LLC a small up and coming commercial/residential cleaning company servicing the TriState area. As a lifelong resident of the city of Elizabeth it saddens me to see the amounts of garbage on city streets. The part that angers me the most is to see with my own eyes their own residents throwing trash out of the their cars onto the streets. I think more signs/bulletins with fines should be posted and a hotline/website to report litterbugs wouldn’t be such a bad idea. It’s time the residents of Elizabeth take responsibility and pride for their neighborhoods and clean their streets up! I can be reached at libertyproperty4u@gmail.com
BTW, I know there was a festival this Labor Day weekend but that is no excuse for the side streets of Elizabeth Avenue to look the way they do. I was in the area today around Fifth street and the filth and garbage on the streets is embarassing. I am sure they can do a better job than that!
KEEP ELIZABETH CLEAN!