Historical April–May 2004 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
On a crisp morning in January, a volunteer clean-up effort took place in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood. Wash U students were recruited by fellow student Jerry Sigmon of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, joining forces with VERDE of the Washington University campus YMCA and Metropolis St. Louis. Mr. Sigmon then met and toured the neighborhood with the SDCC Beautification Committee and mapped out a plan. About 30 students gathered at Kayak’s coffeehouse on Saturday morning, January 24, to be given mops, trashbags, shovels, and hot chocolate.
They were also given directions, a plan of attack, and instructions about yard waste dumpsters, regular trash and bulk item placement.
In groups of 4- 10 people, they set out to various alleys in the neighborhood.
They could not clean every alley, but they did make a big haul out of the alleys they did address. One group of four, in a particularly leafy alley, filled and then re-used plastic bags provided by Operation Brightside.
They estimated that they dumped the equivalent of 50 bags of leaves into the yard waste only dumpsters from 2 alleys.
Another group of students reported that their alley displayed “an entire wardrobe”. Spread out amongst the other trash, they picked up “3 shirts, a coat, 2 pair of pants, 2 pair of plastic pants, 3 pair of underwear, and 5 socks.” This group was particularly grateful for the rubber gloves they had been provided.
When finished, all the groups met at the rendezvous point and downed more hot chocolate. Metropolis St. Louis sponsors other clean-up projects.
If you would like to target an area in St. Louis to volunteer, you can contact Metropolis at: http:// www.mstl.org. Likewise, if you want to help clean up our neighborhood, the Skinker-DeBaliviere Beautification Committee, the SDCC office, and also Operation Brightside can all be of assistance. Contact SDCC at 862-5122 and Brightside at 772-4646.
We have plans to clean up the other alleys not reached by this recent project in the near future, with another group of volunteers.
Please join us for Operation Brightside’s 23rd Annual Project Blitz for our big neighborhood cleanup on Saturday, May 2. You will receive more information about Blitz Day as it approaches. Thank you to Jerry Sigmon and his band of volunteers, for their hard work and positive attitudes.
Original photograph caption
Washington University student volunteers clean neighborhood alleys. Photographer not credited.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, April–May 2004.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: Final announcement prints Saturday May2; other notices/calendar say Saturday May1. Original inconsistency retained.
Original source: SD_Times2004_04.pdf, printed page(s) 1; PDF page(s) 1.
