Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Volunteers to clean the city

By Sarah Poulton

YOUNGSTOWN — Unhappy with the way downtown looks? Change it.

Sharon Letson, executive director of CityScape, is looking for volunteers for the 11th annual Streetscape Saturday. A product of Youngstown’s nonprofit CityScape, Streetscape “targets specific areas downtown and at Youngstown’s gateways for cleanup and beautification.”

Letson said volunteers clean and clear areas of litter and plant flowers in an effort to make the city look better. Last year, the effort topped 300 volunteers, she said, which was great considering the city does not provide funding for this type of activity. CityScape plants and maintains everything, she said.

“When you have an event like this and you have 300 volunteers willing to come out... I think that speaks to the idea that we’re all working together,” Letson said.

In the beginning days, the organization was all volunteer-driven, she said. It began with a core group of people who felt that the way the city looked was very important. Letson said it’s more important than ever now with the downtown undergoing street renovations, but those upgrades only mean progress.

Letson said volunteers will be helping complete tasks such as planting flower pots, planting the four main flower beds in downtown, raking and bagging in Wick Park and Choffin Hillside, and other random “mulching, raking, cleaning and planting.”

“You will go home dirty and you will go home tired, but it’s fun and you will feel like you accomplished something,” Letson said. “You will have a real sense of pride.”

With West Federal taking the brunt of the construction, she said they will not be planting in that area.

Phil Kidd, director of downtown events, said he has been helping with the organization of Streetscape. He said from preliminary registration, it’s the largest turnout thus far with more than 400 RSVPs. A lot of people will RSVP, but there will be a lot of people just coming down to volunteer, he said.

“If you’re looking to get involved in the city and find that initial project, this is a good one,” Kidd said. ”It’s just a great gathering of people and it’s just a nice event.”

The event begins at 8 a.m. downtown and Volunteers should meet at the tent on Federal Plaza. After the work is finished, there will be a thank-you lunch at the tent, provided by various downtown businesses, with entertainment provided by JD Eicher.

Eicher performed at the event last year, and said he was well received. He will be peforming solo, off and on for about an hour and a half. His peformance for this type of show is more or less background music, he said.

“It’ll be a little chillier than normal, but hopefully people will still like it,” Eicher said. “It’s a great thing for Youngstown and it should be fun at the same time.”

For further event details and registration, visit CityScape’s Web site.