Franciscan University of Steubenville students, rugby team join LaBelle, Pleasant Heights cleanup
STEUBENVILLE — Scores of volunteers for the Hilltop Community Development Corp. turned out for the organization’s semiannual cleanup of the Pleasant Heights and Labelle View neighborhoods Saturday.
Volunteers, armed with trash bags, litter grabs and gloves spanned out over both neighborhoods to help show pride in the community, according to Amelia Taggart, organization board president.
“We usually get about 40 volunteers,” said Taggart, explaining volunteers fanned out in a grid pattern to clean the neighborhoods. “We’ll get some volunteers on Pleasant Heights as well. (Volunteers) go out in pairs, go up one side of the street and down the other. We go for about one and one-half hours to two hours. We follow it up with a luncheon for all the volunteers.”
Taggart said money for cleanup materials came through a grant from the JB Green Team.
Jack Scanlon, rugby player and member of student government, said about 10 volunteers from the school’s rugby team participated.
“I think we’ll have about 10 here today,” said Scanlon. “We just wanted to help the community, give back a little bit and support everyone.”
Scanlon said it was the team’s first crack at assisting with the cleanup.
“I’m president of the student government (at Franciscan), so I talked to these guys,” he said.
Joseph Starcher, another member of the school’s student government, said he was happy to help.
“It’s to better the community and help the community thrive because there’s a lot to be cleaned up,” he said. “Steubenville is an old town. All the student government is expected to come.”
Chris Allen of Steubenville also said he wanted to help make the hilltop a little greener.
“I grew up on Maxwell Avenue,” said Allen, adding he’d planned on coming to the next cleanup, too. “I thought if I was free I would do this next time.”
Teresa DiCarlantonio, member of the Hilltop Community Development Corp., said volunteers clean the hilltop twice a year — once in the spring and fall, and the organization knows it can count on Franciscan students to help.
“Some residents called me and told me they were volunteering to clean up their blocks,” said DiCarlantonio, adding in the summer, students volunteering with Youth Works assist with litter cleanup. “It’s our way of trying to keep litter off the streets.”
Gerald “Yonk” DiLoreto, 1st Ward councilman, said he’d like to see more volunteers from the neighborhoods show up and volunteer.
“I’d like to see more of the landlords and tenants participating in this,” he said, while thanking the Hilltop Community Development Corp. for organizing the effort. “For the past 10 years they have been picking up other peoples’ litter. The (students from the university) take more pride than the citizens and landlords do.”
For information or to volunteer, call (740) 282-6895.
(Miller can be contacted at mmiller@heraldstaronline.com.)
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