More than 235 volunteers turn out for Kutztown Street Cleanup

Photo by Reno Unger and Anne Manmiller A small contingent of the Kutztown University Club that turned out focuses on cigarette butts.
Photo by Reno Unger and Anne Manmiller Girl Scouts Lauren Clymer (left) and Olivia Williamson (right) became street sweepers for the morning along with troop leader Mikal Wilcoxson. The Scouts are both from Kutztown Area Middle School and are members of Troop 1974 in Kutztown.
Photo by Reno Unger and Anne Manmiller Sophie Arnold and her dad, Andy, tidy up a corner along Main Street.
Photo by Reno Unger and Anne Manmiller Members of the Kutztown University Outdoors Club pitch in.

PUBLISHED: October 5, 2015 at 12:24 p.m. | UPDATED: August 22, 2021 at 3:48 a.m.

More that 235 volunteers from the Kutztown borough and Kutztown University turned out Sept. 27 for a street cleanup sponsored by the Clean and Green committee of the Kutztown Community Partnership, with support from local merchants.

In addition to local residents, groups that participated in the effort included Girl Scout Troop 1974, several fraternity and sorority organizations and the Outdoors Club from the university. The overall project was coordinated by Jake DeSane, a senior social work major at KU who is working as a student intern with KCP.

Teams were dispatched to spiff up Main Street, the alleys on either side and adjacent streets that see the most weekend clutter.

“We didn’t get as far as the creek side this time, so the students of the Outdoors Club decided they would come back to clear out that debris next week,” said Nancy Brooks, Main Street Manager for KCP.

Brooks added that the KU Woman’s Rugby Club missed out this weekend due to scheduling troubles so they will come later as well.

“I’m glad to see so many students from KU down here with the townspeople as part of this support effort for the community,” said Brooks. “It is good for town-gown relations.”

This effort was a big push for the season by KCP, but smaller cleanups are coordinated by the organization most weekends. Kutztown University also runs one or more large cleanups each season, utilizing volunteers from the sports teams and other organizations on campus.

State sponsored organizations like KCP are usually established with two main elements: “Main Street,” which supports and coordinates community efforts of local merchants, and “Elm Street,” which coordinates efforts of the rest of the community. Cleanup projects like this are normally designated for the Elm Street program, but KCP isn’t big enough to support both, so the organization has only established a Main Street program so far in Kutztown.

“We thought that the clean and green activities were important enough, though, that we took on the project even though we have not established an Elm Street program,” said Brooks.