Of those who came, most didn’t mind waiting to dump their trash and other items at the Godfrey-Lee Athletic Field this past Saturday. They were just happy that the City of Wyoming was hosting the Community Clean-Up Day event.
“We’re just appreciative that the City of Wyoming did this,” said Wyoming resident Michael Donavan, who also works at Godfrey-Lee. Donavan said his family recently helped his father clean out his garage and he came with a truck and trailer full of items.
“The wait is not that big of deal,” said Wyoming resident Melissa Digiovanna, who had her own vehicle along with a friend’s truck full of items. “It is just super awesome that the city is doing this.”
Early indicators showed that the Wyoming Community Clean-Up Day was to be a success as the original story on now.wktv.org had more than 425 Facebook shares. City officials said there was a line when the event opened at 8 a.m. this past Saturday with one of the four dumpsters completely full shortly after opening.
Nancy Stoddard, who works in the city’s treasurer’s office and was part of the organizing committee, had hoped for about 300 cars. Final count was 332 vehicles – including some small U-Haul-style trucks. About 130 of those vehicles dropped off household hazardous waste and 33 20-yard roll-offs of trash were collected. Stoddard said she was still waiting on total tonnage collected.
Stoddard said the committee, which was the city employee group Looks Good Committee, already has begun thinking about next year’s event which includes checking with Godfrey-Lee about possibly having the same location. “I have been checking into grant opportunities,” Stoddard said. This year’s event was unwritten by grants. Also Stoddard said next year, organizers are planning to start with eight dumpsters on the ground to help move people through faster.
“The area that we had this year was so spacious, we really had room for more,” Stoddard said.
Megan Kretz, a resource recovery specialist from the Kent County Department of Public Works and who was helping with the event, said the way the Community Clean-Up Day had been organized and laid out, it really didn’t seem like a first-time event. Cars entered through Joosten Street into the Godfrey-Lee Early Childhood Center’s west parking lot and curved around exiting on to Godfrey Avenue. There were several checkpoints where people could unload household hazardous waste, gently used items to the Salvation Army, recycle items and trash.
“It’s a wonderful event,” said Matthis Fields who was with the Salvation Army. “I love doing these type of events. It’s a beautiful day. Nice weather and I am just so glad to be here.”
As Fields talked, one of the volunteers walked by with a fireplace in an unopened box to put on the Salvation Army truck, which was about two-thirds full by noon.
“This just happens to be one of the good parts, events like these,” Fields said with a smile.
