Trashbuster’s Day is serious business in Evanston. Just ask Melody O’Leary, who chased after a plastic lid that almost escaped from a bag of trash into the middle of Church Street.
O’Leary and more than 250 residents gave Evanston a much needed spring cleaning Saturday morning during the 14th annual Trashbuster’s Day.
Keep Evanston Beautiful Inc. sponsored the event from 9 a.m. to noon.
Volunteers wearing green “Trashbuster’s” hats and plastic gloves combed city streets and parks picking up litter and recyclables left over from winter.
“We collect around 2,000 pounds of trash,” said Charlotte Omohundro, chair of the Community Awareness committee of Keep Evanston Beautiful Inc.
Omohundro, who is responsible for organizing the event, said planning usually begins in January.
“It’s quite an effort, but it’s fun,” she said.
Among the volunteers were National-Louis University students, students from Pope John XXII School and Roycemore School, a YMCA group and the Women’s Club of Evanston.
“We don’t mind giving up our Saturdays,” said Boy Scout Christian McClellan, 16, of Evanston. “It’s a great chance to help out the community.”
McClellan, along with the other Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts of Troop 3 from Orrington School, began cleaning the school grounds at 8:30 a.m. Later the scouts met up with a group of Girl Scouts and headed to Lighthouse Beach Park at Central Street and Sheridan Road. Thirty-five parents and children worked through the morning to clean the lighthouse park area.
This was the third year the scouts participated.
At the corner of Orrington Avenue and Church Street, table captains O’Leary and her daughter Tara, 15, started manning their table at 9 a.m.
Table captains at eight stations around Evanston were responsible for collecting trash bags and providing volunteers with refreshments. Evanston Sanitation Department workers patrolled the stations collecting the bags.
“We’re doing our part to make Evanston a little cleaner,” said O’Leary, who has helped out with Trashbuster’s Day for 11 years.
Evanston Township High School juniors Claire Pyweel, 16, and Rebecca Polster, 15, were working to fulfill their community service requirement for National Honor Society, a service-oriented high school honor society.
Pyweel said she thought the experience was exhausting but enjoyable.
“It’s fun to help out with the community,” said Polster, “and it’s fun if you do it with friends.”
Keep Evanston Beautiful is affiliated with Keep America Beautiful Inc. Both groups are nonprofit organizations working to educate individuals about litter prevention, recycling and waste reduction.
Trashbuster’s Day in Evanston began in 1987 and occurs every year around Earth Day, April 22.
“We’ve been lucky. The past five years we’ve had beautiful weather,” Omohundro said of the mild weather on Saturday.
