The Great American Cleanup Comes to New York

JOYFUL CROWED: Student volunteers cheer during an event to celebrate the Great American Cleanup in New York City. Volunteers across the nation will be taking the initiative to make their communities greener and cleaner. (Joshua Philipp/The Epoch Times)

NEW YORK—To celebrate Earth Day, volunteers were joined by city and White House officials to welcome the Great American Cleanup to New York. The nationwide program will mobilize close to 3 million volunteers to beautify their communities, pick up litter, and hold free education programs on living green.

On Wednesday, a rally was held at Military Island on Times Square. Various speakers announced some of New York’s green initiatives, while three massive video screens broadcast their message across Times Square.

Juan Lopez, the senior program manager from the Federal Environmental Executive of the White House spoke at the event, saying that they were there to “celebrate our collective commitment to protect earth’s precious resources for the benefit of this generation and generations to come.”

“You and I are called to make that difference to serve our communities and enriching the quality of life for all of us,” he said.

This year the city is celebrating its own efforts for the Great American Cleanup through the second anniversary of the Keep New York City Beautiful Coalition, which will rally residents to help out in the beautification of New York.

Some of the activities this year will be graffiti removal programs, tree planting, and trash pickup.

Close to 50 student volunteers sat in a line of chairs at the side of the small stage, awaiting their chance to help. Several other volunteer groups throughout the five boroughs also attended to show their support.

President of Citizens Committee for New York City Peter Kostmayer said that in New York, some of the initiatives have already begun. He said that just last week “we began a program to clean up individual blocks of New York City,” with the help of various city agencies including the sanitation department, the department of buildings, and the police department.

“If each of us would just keep our own doorsteps clean that would take care of all New York City,” Kostmayer said.

Adding to some of the green initiatives taking place in New York, Robert Kafin, chairman of the Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC) said that they’ve created more than 50 gardens in the city to date.

Last year, CENYC’s efforts “lead to the planting of thousands of trees and shrubs, thousands of daffodil bulbs, and hundreds and hundreds of flowering plants all over the city,” Kafin said.

Earlier this month they also dedicated a new urban farm in Brooklyn that brings green space, vegetable gardens, and picnic areas “to that neighborhood, adding a new spot of beauty to what was once a vacant lot,” he said.

“We’re thinking green now and forever, and we hope all of you will too.”

The Great American Cleanup is the largest community improvement project in the nation. The program is done annually and lasts from March 1 through May 31. In 2008, the program brought together an estimated three million volunteers nationwide who worked to beautify and improve more than 17,000 communities in all 50 states.

The program was started in New York City in 1953 by a group of corporate and civic leaders. It began from an idea to bring public and private sectors together to bring about ethics for national cleanliness.

Tommy Longo, the mayor of Waveland, Mississippi, spoke at the event about how the program helped his community, which was hit by Hurricane Katrina more than three years ago. The community lost close to 500,000 trees and 95 percent of their residential structures.

[caption id=“attachment_84971” align=“alignright” width=“320” caption="BEAUTIFY AMERICA: Miss America 2009 Katie Stam sings