Category Archives: Team Clean Up

Over the course of our EACAP project, we have made great progress in the volunteer work we have done with the City of Reading and the volunteer organizations of VOiCEup Berks and Youth Volunteer Corps, South of Penn Task Force, and Reading Beautification. We participated in a clean up event with several of the organizations to help make an impact on the problems of litter and pollution in the City of Reading. Our issue that we focused on through our volunteer service was litter and the methods that organizations use to strengthen the community in Reading. In order to better understand our organizations, their purpose, and the actions they take in Reading, we conducted interviews with representatives of each organization. In our interviews, we asked about what types of events they hold to help clean up the city and help build and strengthen the community in Reading as well as help people learn skills such as how to be financially stable and leadership. We also asked about the greatest obstacles that these organizations face and how difficult it is to gather volunteers for the events they hold.

Through our interviews, we found that the organizations we worked with had similar goals to each other and have similar events to accomplish their goals. Some of the common goals the organizations hold are to clean up the City of Reading of litter and trash and to help strengthen Reading’s community as well as helping individual people learn skills through events and service that will help them become a better community member. Some of the common difficulties that they shared were the difficulty of reaching out to volunteers and the community and advertising the organization and events they hold. Some of the common methods of advertising were through Facebook and by word of mouth. Another common issue that faced these organizations were how the community of Reading receives them and working to gain the trust of the community.

The important people that helped us along with our project was Laura Cordero from the City of Reading Public Works who helped us organize and get in touch with our organizations for our volunteer work, Tony Veloz from the South of Penn Task Force who we interviewed and he organized the clean up event for the South Penn that we participated in, Christi Terefenko from VOiCEup Berks and the Youth Volunteer Corps who had a large role in organizing the Global Youth Service Day clean up event in City Park, and Steven Harrity who worked with Reading Beautification for several years and also had an important role in organizing the Great American Clean Up all around the City of Reading. These individuals helped us along with gathering information about their organizations and helping us volunteer for the organization to clean up the litter and trash that was polluting the streets of Reading.

The important events that we participated in with these organizations were clean up events hosted by South of Penn, VOiCEup Berks, and Reading Beautification. With South of Penn, we participated in a cleanup event on Bingaman street in the City of Reading where we collected around 2 large trash bags of litter that was on the street while we worked along side several other volunteers who helped clean up. We participated in VOiCEup Berks and Youth Volunteer Corps’ Global Youth Service Day to help clean up the park by doing mulching, weeding, planting flowers, and picking up litter and leaves in our area of the park near the Veterans’ memorials. We interviewed Steven Harrity about RBI and how it works to clean up Reading and how it organizes events and projects in Reading

To reflect on this project, we felt that it provided us with very valuable volunteering experiences that helped us build our leadership and organizational skills while teaching us about the organizations that work to help build communities and clean the environment. We learned about the details of innerworkings of the organizations and the biggest problems that they face with the community and the cities they help. We felt that our experiences with this project were enjoyable and important and that they have helped prepare us with important life skills. As a message to all youth and individuals alike, you should take advantage of the volunteering opportunities around you as organizations like South of Penn and others depend on new volunteers like you to help clean up the environment and help where ever they can. Volunteering will also help you build important life skills like leadership and communications skills as well as organizational skills, so it can’t hurt you to try.

We interviewed Steven Harrity on April 22 about Reading Beautification and how it has helped clean up the City of Reading for several years. We found that Reading Beautification is responsible for many of the clean up events in Reading such as the Great American Clean Up held all around the City of Reading. Reading Beautification’s goals are to Reading cleaner and safer. Some clean up projects that RBI has created were placing litter cans, around 35 cans or so to give a convenient place to throw away trash around the City. RBI plans to add more litter cans to cover all areas of the City of Reading to help deal with the litter problem. We also found that the greatest obstacles that faced RBI were communication and advertising events from the organization, similarly to the other organizations we have interviewed. We found that RBI has support from many partners from the City of Reading and this allows RBI to effectively hold clean ups and projects to help clean up the city.

On April 18th, Team Clean Up presented a 3 panel poster about the service of our EACAP project and what issues we researched during this project. On the 3 panel poster, we discussed our work with South of Penn, VOiCEup Berks, and soon with RBI (Reading Beautification). We talked about participating in South of Penn’s Cleanup and the litter we picked up as well as our work in City Park with the mulching, weeding, and planting flowers with VOiCEup Berks. We noted that we are scheduled to participate in a clean up event on April 27 for RBI for the Great American Clean up. We also look forward to interviewing Steven Harrity who worked with RBI for several years on April 22. As part of our research component of our project, we researched Superfund Sites and process of cleaning up hazardous waste on Superfund Sites.

Here we are with our poster:

On April 14, Team Clean Up volunteered with VOiCEup Berks and the Youth Volunteer Corps of Reading to help with their Global Youth Service Day clean up and with beautifying the park. We picked up litter anywhere that we found it in our work at the park. The area that we paid most attention to was the Veteran’s Memorials where we weeded, mulched, and planted flowers around the monuments to help make the area look great. We also cleaned up winter debris such as leaves that were scattered around our area of the park. There were other groups from Penn State Berks who helped with the clean up, each group was sent to a different area of the park and set as team leaders for the volunteers in the area. On April 15, we were set to conduct an interview with a representative of VOiCEup Berks named Christi Terefenko about the organization and how it has worked to help the City of Reading with its strategies of service learning, skill building, and volunteer opportunities to enrich the youth of Reading. We were happy to help clean up the park on Global Youth Service Day with VOiCEup Berks and the Youth Volunteer Corps and we appreciated the opportunity to interview one of their head organizers about them.Here we are on Global Youth Here we are on Global Youth Service Day

Team Clean Up met today, March 16th, to participate in a Clean-up held by Barrio Alegria and the South of Penn Task Force to clean up litter and trash on the streets. We walked along a few streets picking up trash and litter from 10am to 12pm after we met up and signed in with the main groups. Our team of two people were able to collect two large orange trash bags full of the various types of litter that were polluting the streets of the City of Reading. We worked mainly on Bingaman Street and we were happy to volunteer and help our organizations with cleaning up some of the litter in Reading. We also look forward to some of the future Clean-Ups that will be taking place in the City in April and also to our interview with Tony Veloz on Monday, March 18th. Although it was a windy and slightly cold day, we were happy to help clean up the streets and help our organizations in the City of Reading.

Here we are during the clean-up:

On Thursday, March 14th, The members of Team Clean Up, Cameron Yost and Shawn Rutcosky met to work through research on the environmental issue of Superfund Sites and prepare an outline of the research we have collected towards it. We collected information about the History of the EPA’s Superfund Site program and information about many of the Superfund Sites that have gained attention around Pennsylvania and the United States. In addition to researching Superfund Sites, we got organized and collaborated to find the best ways of getting to and working through our volunteer work for a Clean-Up in the City of Reading. The Clean-Up we will be participating in is a Clean-Up between Barrio Alegria of Reading and the South of Penn Task Force, we will be cleaning up the area of the city 313 S 7th St. and Bingaman St. We also planned for our interview with Tony Veloz about the South of Penn Task Force to learn more about the organization, we finalized our questions for the interview.

Here we are on our way to work on the research and prepare for the Clean-Up:

Team Clean Up and other EACAP groups met with Tony Veloz and Laura Cordero to discuss the importance and goals that the South of Penn Task Force strive to accomplish in the City of Reading. Tony spoke with us about the types of events that SOP holds such as Clean Ups, Home ownership workshops, Financial Workshops, and Block Parties. Tony informed us on the purposes that each of the events serve and how they help improve life in the community. Events like Block Parties serve to help community members communicate with each other and interact and build social bonds that strengthen the community. The Home Ownership workshops and financial workshops serve to help people learn to effectively manage their finances and learn how to buy and own homes. Home Ownership is important for the community as people will value their property more and will tend to keep it more clean and as making them a member of the community. The Clean Ups are important because they are directly cleaning up areas of the city and people watching the clean ups may be interested in getting involved, which helps to additionally strengthen the community. In addition to learning about the South of Penn Task Force and its goals, we competed in a flyer designing competition for the SOP Great American Clean Up being held on April 27. Each of our EACAP teams that were present created designs for a flyer about the clean up and compared them for the best design. The SOP Great American Clean Up will be held on April 27, 2019, from 10am to 12pm at the Reading Iron Playground. Here we are at the meeting:

Today, Our team met with Laura Cordero who represents the City of Reading Sustainability and Waste. We discussed the importance of the public works department of the City of Reading and the work that it does to keep the City of Reading working and clean. We also discussed the work that our team will be involved in for cleaning up areas in the City. We plan to meet on set dates coordinating with other organizations in Reading to clean up litter and waste in different areas in the City. Some of the dates for clean-ups are March 16 which is the South of Penn Taskforce monthly neighborhood clean-ups in south of Penn Ave area in Reading, April 14 which is the Global Youth Service Day being a large clean-up effort at Reading’s City Park that is organized by VOiCEup and Youth Volunteer Corps of Reading, and April 27 being the Great American Clean-Up which are clean-ups happening at parks all over the city of Reading from 8am-1pm, organized by the City. In addition to the clean-up engagements, our team has been given different options to conduct research or other work such as interviewing people from some of the organizations who organize and participate in the clean-ups in Reading. The information we gather will be used to tie into work in the clean-up engagements. Our team is looking forward to participating in the clean-up engagements and working with some of the organizations that work hard to help keep the City of Reading clean.

Hello everyone, we are Team Cleanup and our members are Shawn Rutcosky and Cameron Yost. We are looking forward to volunteering with the City of Reading Sustainability and Waste from the City of Reading Public Works Dept. We will be working with Laura Cordero who represents the City of Reading Public Works Dept. Our volunteering work will consist of participating in Community Clean-Up Engagements in various locations around the City of Reading. In addition, We will also be conducting research for our EACAP project for our Environmental Science Course at Penn State Berks. Our group members are Shawn Rutcosky who is a computer science major and Cameron Yost who is a criminal justice major. We are looking forward to this valuable volunteer opportunity and we believe that this will be an exciting and interesting learning experience. Here are our group members: