Volunteers Make a Clean Sweep to Beautify County

Laura Rosconi, an 84-year-old widow, was standing on the back stoop of her Encanto house and pointing her cane toward a backyard so overgrown with waist-high weeds and grass that the brick steps leading to a small shrine beneath an oak tree had disappeared.

In heat that was already uncomfortably warm by 9 a.m. Saturday, boys ages 10 to 15 and their supervisor Tony Polizzi unloaded a lawn mower, rakes, shovels, “weed whackers” and a pitchfork from a beat-up Dodge Dart to bring the unruly growth under control and clear the way to the small blue-and-white statue flanked by a riot of pink geraniums.

On a day when many headed for the beach to relax and start a tan, the boys from the Encanto Boys’ Club were on a mission to beautify the neighborhood and help senior citizens.

They joined a couple of hundred of San Diego County volunteers who spent much of the unseasonably warm day sweeping sidewalks, collecting litter, pulling weeds and painting over graffiti on the first day of Keep America Beautiful Week.

The local city-funded I Love A Clean San Diego organization kicked off the week with the clean-up event designed to tidy communities and to raise awareness about handling waste and debris.

By mid-morning Saturday the Encanto boys had dodged rocks with lawn mower blades, pulled out ice plant that was choking Mrs. Rosconi’s rose bush and hacked tall grass from the half-acre lot. Undaunted by the heat while others took a break in the shade, Enrique Araugo, 13, knelt in front of the Virgin Mary statue in the shrine to arrange the blue and white rocks he had uncovered after pulling weeds that were now stashed in garbage bags.

“It’s fun,” Araugo, who learned yardwork from his father, said. “With my Dad we didn’t use a lawn mower, we would only use our hands.”

The corner lot on Wunderlin Avenue where Mrs. Rosconi has lived since 1929, was the first stop for the boys who went on to other neighboring homes to bag debris, pull weeds and mow grass.

Several miles north in Santee, where rock climbers gathered at Santee Boulders to clean up the natural area, volunteers hefted rusty washing machines, a dumped dinghy and an abandoned refrigerator onto a flatbed truck.

“It’s about time we did something like this. I’ve been climbing here for about 8 years. We might as well pay the area back a little bit, “ said Todd Tremble.

A favorite country party spot and illegal dumping grounds as well as a popular site for climbing, the hilly area dotted with large boulders was littered with beer bottles, Penthouse magazine, broken glass and major appliances. About 10 volunteers armed with gloves, brooms and bags encountered rattle snakes, picked up loose trash, fondled a baby Rosy Boa snake found under piles of dumped roofing, and with a measure of brawn, twice filled a split-axle two-ton truck with heavy debris targeted for the dump.

An overturned vehicle riddled with bullet holes proved to be too embedded in a gully to pull out with a chain and a tow, and the top half of a rusted Volkswagen Bug, lovers’ initials scratched into the faded paint, will remain a part of the scenery for now.

In the urban environment, University Avenue in San Diego got a sweeping when dozens of volunteers brought brooms and dustbins from home to give their communities a cleaner look. In North Park between Texas and Idaho streets, workers in identical silk-screened T-shirts swept sidewalks on both sides of the street.

Farther east on the avenue, in City Heights between 40th Street and Fairmont Boulevard, Boy Scouts, children from a local recreation center and area adults surprised local businesses and pedestrians with their brigade of broom pushers in fluorescent orange vests.

Around the city and surrounding area, Cub Scouts cleaned roadsides and vacant lots on Navajo Road in San Carlos, and two troops cleaned beaches and bike trails on the Silver Strand.

A Brownie troop scoured Torrey Pines City Park for trash, and Walk About International toted garbage bags on their jaunt down Broadway, Harbor Drive and the Gaslamp district downtown.

Boys’ Club and scout troop members cleaned loose litter and garbage dumped by residents in a Clairemont Mesa Boulevard canyon, and Sierra Club members cleaned the roadway leading to Cowles Mountain. In Golden Hill Park and Linda Vista, volunteers painted over graffiti and stuffed litter into the trash bags delivered to all groups by I Love A Clean San Diego.

The Padre Dam area was rid of much of its unwanted litter by Boy Scout Troop 348 and the A16 Mountain Climbers.

According to the executive coordinator of I Love A Clean San Diego, Joyce Urban, the day was a success, and she hopes the event will grow every year.

“We want to change people’s attitudes about waste. We want them to have a sense of ownership for their parks, beaches and communities.”