Rain or not, volunteers clean up the community

Dar Al-Hijrah members take part in the Culmore Cleanup.

Despite rainy, unseasonably cold weather, hundreds of local residents spent Saturday morning picking up litter in an effort to make the community a better place.

About 40 people collected trash along Little River Turnpike and surrounding streets, reports Helen Winter of the Annandale Women’s Club, which sponsored the Annandale Cleanup.

Hillbrook-Tall Oaks resident John Sears collects trash along Little River Turnpike. This is the first time he participated in the Annandale Cleanup but has picked up litter on his own along Braddock Road.

Members of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Hillbrook-Tall Oaks neighborhood, and the Community Labor Force filled at least 50 trash bags, Winter says. Notable finds include a $20 bill and part of a car bumper.

The Culmore Cleanup headquarters in the Woodrow Wilson Library.

The Culmore Cleanup, organized by Priscilla Weck, seems to get bigger every year. The 10th annual event this year drew over 275 people to the Woodrow Wilson Library in Bailey’s Crossroads.

Stuart High School students from the Rotary Interact Club at the Culmore Cleanup. [Bailey’s Crossroads Rotary Club]

Participants came from the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center, Hispanics Against Childhood Abuse and Neglect  (HACAN), the Bailey’s Crossroads Rotary Club, Stuart High School students in the Rotary’s Interact Club, the Alternative House’s Culmore Safe Youth Project, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Comunidad Cristiana Renacer, and Girl Scout Troop 2915.

Kids add decorations to a mural on the Wilson Library wall created by HACAN that says “Culmore Cleanup: Changing Our World.”

The Rotary Club and Dar Al-Hijrah were sponsors of the event, along with Coca-Cola, Euro Market-Mobil, Safeway, Moe’s Southwest Grill, and the Radley Automotive Group.

Stuart students take part in the Culmore cleanup.

Seven Corners Beautification Day was rescheduled to April 30, 8:30-11 a.m., at the Willston Multicultural Center, reports Nancy Vorona, president of the Bailey’s Crossroads/Seven Corners Revitalization Corporation (BC7RC). Sponsors include Safeway, Starbucks, Anthem HealthKeepers, and Chik fil A.

Kids from the Culmore Safe Youth Project, an after-school program, with their leader, Emmanuel Yarngo.

A few volunteers, however, did pick up litter around the Route 50/Route 7/Wilson Boulevard intersection, and a rain barrel activity, led by Belvedere Elementary School environmental educator Stacey Evers, was rescheduled to yesterday afternoon.

Illegal signs in the Willston Center parking lot.

BC7RC is launching a “beautification
award” to recognize the owner of a business or large multifamily
complex that has “really taken great care of their property” with the
improvements visible from the street, Vorona says. More details will
be announced soon.