By JANA METGE
Even the cold, rain, and snow did not stop our Annual Phillips Clean Sweep from going on! Saturday, October 12th Phillips residents came out to clean up their neighborhood. Bethlehem Baptist brought over a tent to protect the free T-Shirts for each participant. Beth Hart and her grandson, Joe Golish and John Richard volunteered to serve breakfast donated by Allina. A little snow and cold didn”™t stop them!
Residents and other volunteers cleaned up areas where trash was dumped and cleaned out basements and garages of broken or unneeded household construction items, tires, metal, appliances, furniture, and mattresses. This one time a year event allows residents to put out everything at no charge! The four Phillips Community neighborhoods: Ventura Village across the top from 35W to Hiawatha & north of 24th St. to E-94), Phillips West (35-W to Chicago Av. 24th St. to Lake Street), Midtown Phillips (Chicago Av. to Bloomington Av. 24th St. to Lake St.), and East Phillips (Bloomington Av. to Hiawatha & 24th St. to Lake St.) raise funds to hire city garbage trucks and provide this service for free. A Clean Sweep Planning Team meets for 9 weeks prior to the event organizing all of the details, raising money and donations! A huge thanks to the Planning Team and all who volunteered and participated with the 2019 Phillips Clean Sweep!
Lunch followed the litter pickup at noon in Stewart Park provided by Bethlehem Baptist, Minneapolis Mad Dads, and Banyan Community.
U of M Medical students set up a Free Health Fair as a part of this year”™s event. They provided blood pressure testing, diabetes screening and information. A neighborhood Resource Fair also filled the Park Building. Neighborhood partners and organizations, including employment opportunities at Panera Bread located at Abbott hospital were set up, staffed, and on display. We learned from our Census Table that $20/hr jobs are now being offered to assist with the Census count! Many thanks to all of the participants.
Many thanks to Michelle Howard, Minneapolis Clean City Coordinator, staff at Minneapolis Solid Waste & Recycling and Alliance for Sustainability/Litter Be Gone. Other funds in addition to the 4 Phillips Neighborhoods were: DJR Architects, Wellington, Thrivent Financial, Watson Forsberg, Wells Fargo, Litter Be Gone, and LHB Architects. Somali TV produced a video on this Clean Sweep available on their Facebook Page.
CLEAN SWEEP Results
Trash Collected
Phillips Ventura: 7,840 lbs
Phillips West: 5,780 lbs
Phillips Midtown: 10,800 lbs
Phillips East: 9,960 lbs
Phillips West to East
Truck 1
200 lbs metal, 15 tires,
6 appliances, 10 TVs
Truck 2
1,500 lbs metal, 20 tires,
10 appliances,
6 mattresses, 20 TVs
Phillips East to West
Truck 1
100 lbs metal, 30 tires,
6 appliances,
20 mattresses, 15 TVs
Truck 2
300 lbs metal, 60 tires,
6 appliances,
3 mattresses, 30 TVs
Phillips Ventura
2500 lbs metal, 13 tires,
2 appliances, 9 TVs
