ESDC PILSEN STREET CLEANUP MAKES A SUMMER APPEARANCE
Cleanup focused on the Pilsen business district and industrial corridor.
Once again ESDC and partners hit the streets to do an all-day clean-up on Wednesday, August 25 only this time it was in 94-degree weather! The heat and humidity didn’t stop the community crew comprised of teachers, administrators, students, and members of a professional soccer team covering 28 blocks and 9 routes across Pilsen. Over 80 volunteers went through the neighborhood, picking up and collecting close to 40 garbage bags of debris to be hauled off.
ESDC partnered with Chicago House AC and Benito Juárez Community Academy along with Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation, the office of Cook County Commissioner Alma Anaya, and others in supporting a healthy and clean neighborhood.
“A neighborhood transforms positively when stakeholders, community institutions, residents, and government come together for a common purpose,” says Salvador Cerna, Community Outreach Director for ESDC. “Today the message was loud and clear that a clean neighborhood speaks well of those who live, play, work, and study in it.”
This organized effort began at the grounds of Benito Juárez Community Academy, where teams of volunteers handed out garbage bags/pickers, gloves, shovels, and brooms.
In addition to refreshments provided by PepsiCo, youth volunteers also received a brief reflection of the day’s work, words of thanks, and appreciation led by the Benito Juarez Community’s “Trash Talkers”, Ms. Fernandez, and soccer students’ Coach Gomez from Chicago House AC.
ESDC Pilsen Street Cleanup serves to remind the community that picking up trash and refraining from littering makes a difference in the neighborhood and the future’s environment.
In doing so, it serves to bring together a diverse group of volunteers to take responsibility, feel pride and inspire a sense of commitment for a healthy community. To get involved in the ongoing cleanup effort, please contact ESDC’s outreach director, Salvador Cerna at scerna@esdcchicago.org or 312.733.2287.