Big Kenmore Clean-Up deemed a success

KENMORE - The words of appreciation from one store owner said it best.

That’s why I have my business in Kenmore. Because the people here care.

About 60 neighbors pitched in to help make Kenmore a little nicer better place to live when the Kenmore Village Improvement Society held its second annual Big Kenmore Clean-Up on Saturday, April 28.

Volunteers did a sweep of the Village hitting Delaware, Military and Elmwood and well as Mang Park, various parking lots and the Village Green and other green spots in Kenmore.

So very pleased by the turn out-triple the amount of volunteers who pitched in last year-KVIS President Melissa Foster said what was truly heartwarming was the fact that it was such a cross section of people coming out to help.

“It was definitely heart-warming,” Foster said. “And to see the level of caring, with everyone so very busy, to take the time to come spring clean their village or even the people who recycled. Who brought their things over (to the drop off sight) instead of putting them in a landfill. It was just so many ‘wins’ across the board.”

It wasn’t just middle-aged home and owners looking to protect the beauty of where they live or seniors looking for a project. There were KVIS members, a group from the Ken-Ton Teachers Association and a great deal of Ken-Ton youths that pitched in and worked hard from beginning to end.

Along with several members of the Ken-West rugby program and other athletes Foster said there was a dedicated group of kids from the Starbucks on Delaware who did an amazing job.

Foster said that it bodes well for the future of Kenmore when you see so many young people taking an active interest in a community project of this nature.

“Everyone seems like they sort of complain about the younger generation how they’re not involved,” Foster stated.

“I’ve got to tell you, these kids from Starbucks they’re young people. They’re working...they have so many other things that they could have been doing but they got up on Saturday morning. I cannot tell you how hard they worked.

They transformed those municipal lots. They didn’t get to all of them, but the ones they did, it’s just such a huge difference.

They cleaned up things that hadn’t been cleaned up in years.”

Mayor Pat Mang swung by many of the cleaning sights and was just bursting with pride over the way Kenmore residents answered the call on this day.

“It’s a community event and everybody should part take whether you’re a KVIS member or not,” Mayor Mang said. “You should always want to clean up the community you live in. The turn out was great. They did a great job once again. Again, it’s a community event to get people out, up on Delaware and cleaning up. I think it went extremely well. We’re glad that KVIS sponsors this, but they need the community to come together to make it a success as well. And that’s encouraging to see that the community gets behind a group like that. And takes pride in this village and is willing to devote some time into cleaning it up.”

Foster said volunteers also took great care to do little things like sweeping up cigarette butts from sidewalk cracks.

“The general consensus is that Marlboro seems to be the preferred brand in Kenmore,” Foster joked.”And is now our No.1 pet peeve.”

For more info the KVIS and its projects, call 877-0477.