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Eastside swept clean

The rain did not keep them away. “We had about 1,100 people participate in Clean Sweep—about 200 more than last year, and we collected 38 tons of garbage,” said Kate Frazier, one of the organizers of the May 2 event. “We also had amazing partnerships take place for Clean Sweep.”

The owner of the 76 gas station at 64^th Street and Pacific Avenue donated all the hotdogs for the event and provided free coffee for the participants. Burns Towing had trucks at each of the 12 school sites delivering donated bottled water, juice and apples. The tow drivers also drove the trucks around the community and had volunteers load up garbage such as toilet bowls, broken bikes, shopping carts and more that they found along the way.

Palmer Scholar alumni volunteered to set up, serve food and take down the celebration site. “They did an incredible job,” said Frazier. The Division 34 Kiwanis and Key Club students collected more 2,000 books, sorted them and handed them out to children and families during the event.

“The Lincoln High School Drum Line blew everyone away,” Frazier said. “They came off the bus drumming and welcomed everyone to the site. When it was time to start the Clean Sweep celebration, they marched through the halls of Stewart Middle School and built enormous excitement and energy.”

“We had an amazing list of VIPs who sponsored schools for the event,” Frazier pointed out. The VIPs included:

Blix E.S.—Tansy Hayward, assistant city manager, and Susan Schreurs, general counsel, TPS
Boze E.S.—Don Ramsdell, chief of police
Lister E.S.— Ken Wilson, manager, Safety and Environmental Health, TPS, and Lisa Wojtanowicz, community based service coordinator, city of Tacoma
Fawcett E.S.—Leanna Albrecht, director of Public Information, TPS
McKinley E.S.— Jake Fey, Tacoma City Council, and Ron Hack, chief financial officer, TPS
Sheridan E.S.— Michael Power, assistant superintendent, Program and Learning Support, TPS
Roosevelt E.S.— Chris Ott, ESA coordinator, city of Tacoma
Lyon E.S.— Laurie Taylor, assistant superintendent, Human Resources, TPS
Stewart M.S.— Dr. Art Jarvis, superintendent, TPS, and Rick Talbert, Tacoma City Council
McIlvaigh M.S.—Marilyn Strickland, Tacoma City Council
Gault M.S.— Miguel Villahermosa, director, School Support K-12, TPS
Lincoln H.S.—Bob Sheehan, assistant chief of police

The school coordinators who recruited participants at each of the schools and organized the clean up in their school’s community deserve a huge thank you. Also Fab 5 donated a piece of art to give to the school which won the Above and Beyond Award. Students from School of the Arts, Roosevelt Dancers, Sheridan African Drum and Dance, McCarver Dancers, Chief Leschi Cultural Program dancers performed during the celebration as well as the Lincoln drumline.

Schools winning awards were:

Fawcett E.S.—Above and Beyond Award for cutting back brush around school and planting a traffic circle
Sheridan E.S.—Most Volunteers Award
Stewart M.S.—Most Bags of Garbage Collected Award
Boze E.S.—Most Dumpsters Used Award

In addition, McIlvaigh Middle School volunteers helped community member paint out graffiti. Sheridan Elementary School staff and families helped an elderly man get his refuse to the dumpster. Boze families helped a community member get a yard cleaned up. This is what community is all about—helping each other.

Superintendent Arthur O. Jarvis, Ed.D., ajarvis@tacoma.k12.wa.us
Superintendent-Elect (Interim) Carla Santorno, csantor@tacoma.k12.wa.us
Central Administration Building, P.O. Box 1357, Tacoma, WA 98401-1357, 253.571.1000

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