The fifth annual Neighborhood Cleanup event brought out residents and their green thumbs in preparation for Earth Day on Saturday.
There were three different pickup locations throughout Santa Clarita to participate in the citywide cleanup – the Newhall Community Center, Canyon Country Park and The Centre.
The drive-through at Newhall Community Center was set up so any volunteers could grab supplies like gloves, trash bags, bags of mulch and drought-tolerant plants for their residential areas.
Oliver Cramer, storm water program administrator, led the event by giving each volunteer their supplies and his “spiel,” as he called it, on what the event was and how they can make an impact in beautifying the city.
“So, the idea is to pick up the litter before it becomes trash in the river. So, this is for residents to go throughout their neighborhoods or parks or any areas that they feel need a little bit of extra attention, pick up those pieces of trash … and help beautify their neighborhoods and our city,” Cramer said.
The event’s setup was a well-oiled machine with check-in at the first station, then the next was getting the free supplies and bags of mulch and at the end volunteers could pick up their plants.
Volunteers came in crowds and ranged from young children to teenagers to adults.
Cramer said the volunteers come from church groups, community groups, students fulfilling their volunteer hours and Girl Scouts all over Santa Clarita.
When asked why this cause was important to Cramer, he said that he appreciates the cleanliness and living in an area that he feels connected with.
Brian Aquin, a storm water worker, was handing out bags of mulch with a smile on his face.
“We were given two pallets of a hundred bags each pallet, so 200 bags and it’s just for this location,” Aquin said.
Aquin estimated across the three locations that about 600 bags of free mulch would be given out to the volunteers.
Bret Lunde, project development coordinator for the city of Santa Clarita, was handing out free plants to volunteers who walked up or were in the drive-through.
“They’re all California natives, so they won’t need much water once they’re established. They’re different sizes and different flowering, different colors. So, you can really dress up your yard with these different native plant materials,” Lunde said.
The plants were Ribes viburnifolium (“Evergreen Currant’), Salvia c. (“Sage”), Rhus integrifolia (“Lemonade Berry”), and Ceanothus (“Mountain Lilac”).
Happening on the other side of town, the tree planting was held in front of the George A. Caravalho Santa Clarita Sports Complex Gymnasium with the Santa Clarita City Council and volunteers planting a tree.
The tree was an eastern red bud (“Forest Pansy”) and was provided by the West Coast Arborists.
Mayor Bill Miranda and Mayor Pro Tem Laurene Weste had smiles on their faces going from ear-to-ear after experiencing this historic moment yet again.
“Well, when we first became a city, one of the things that we valued was greenery and trees, so we started planting trees and we became a tree city USA. And we’ve done an Arbor Day event every year since and we’re very proud of our urban forest. Very, very proud,” Weste said.
The tree planting had the City Council, Scouts from BSA Troop 48, Pack 48 and other volunteers shovel the dirt into the tree hole.
With everyone smiling and enjoying the moment, Miranda added that one of the most important things is that the city of Santa Clarita has the desire and ability to preserve the trees throughout the city.
“A lot of cities have a lot of trees, and they’re cut down and not trimmed. We take care of our trees, you drive down any of our boulevards, you will see those trees trimmed,” Miranda said.
After an event-filled morning, the “Neighborhood Cleanup” group’s main goal was to continue to impact Santa Clarita in a positive way by going green and to help the planet – especially on Earth Day.
