By Melanie Lekocevic
Capital Region Independent Media
RAVENA — More than 30 volunteers from the village and town turned out Saturday to clean up local streets in celebration of Earth Day.
“We are getting our community together to go out into the community to various side streets to pick up all the litter that we see,” Village Trustee Linda Muller said Saturday. “We want to make our community beautiful. We have been doing this for many years.”
Volunteers met in the parking lot of village hall at 15 Mountain Road at 10 a.m. on Saturday, gathered up trash bags and other gear, and then headed out to 10 sites in the village to pick up garbage.
Former village trustee Mary Ellen Rosato began the Earth Day initiative decades ago and continues to participate each year.
“I started this back in the ‘80s with my Girl Scout troop,” Rosato said. “It worked out really good — the kids did the whole village. They loved it.”
Deputy Mayor Nancy Warner said the group selected 10 sites that could use the most attention, including Winnie Avenue, Faith Plaza, Jefferson Avenue, Pulver Avenue, Central Avenue, Van Buren Avenue, Main Street, Wendell Street, Railroad Avenue and the area near the diner on Route 9W.
“Those are our priorities,” Warner said. “They are the most traveled, so we wanted to take care of those first.”
The team of volunteers headed out armed with trash bags and filled them to the brim.
“The volunteers then leave the garbage bags along the side of the street and the village crew will pick them up on Monday,” Warner said Saturday. “Thiele Carting donated a dumpster so anything big or small that we collect will go in there. Sometimes we even collect furniture that was thrown out in the street.”
Items that are collected in the Earth Day cleanup initiative run the gamut from ordinary trash to tiny liquor bottles to large furniture.
“Most of it is just garbage,” Muller said. “During the pandemic we picked up a lot of face masks that people had thrown away.”
For volunteers, the annual project is a labor of love.
“The village is where I live and I want to make sure it’s clean and it looks nice,” Rosato said. “We want to be proud of our village.”
Marlene McTigue, chairperson of the RCS Community Business Association, said representatives from Carver Companies and other businesses were among those on hand to help out.
“It’s great to see so many people out here on Earth Day,” McTigue said. “It’s important that we get together as often as we can to do whatever we can to make our community a better place. At the business association we are working every single day to promote the growth and prosperity of this community and seeing all these people out here today to help clean up our community makes us feel wonderful.”
Volunteer Jeff Shackleton said he has volunteered for the Earth Day cleanup for several years.
“It’s about the community,” Shackleton said. “When you are driving around and you see trash on the street it doesn’t look good. They do this once a year so I can afford to donate a couple of hours to help.”
Yvonne Shackleton said a little work goes a long way when it comes to beautifying the community.
“The village takes the time to organize this every year and it’s an immediate result for a little bit of work, and it helps to beautify our community,” she said.
Village Trustee Caitlin Appleby was headed over to Faith Plaza and Jefferson Avenue to do a little cleaning up. It’s a way of showing community pride, she said.
“It’s important to keep our town clean,” Appleby said. “When people drive through and see trash on the side of the road, it promotes the idea that it’s not a cared-for community. When you see streets that are litter free, it shows we care about our community. Many hands make light work so it’s important to take the time and do a little beautification.”
