This year’s cleanup was different with some unexpected surprises! Leading up to the cleanup, the curbside pickup list was steadily growing. We had a truck and trailer lined up for each day of the cleanup. But then a couple days before, we found one of our trucks and trailers couldn’t do Tuesday, and we had a whole list of pickups. Not knowing how we would get all our appointments fulfilled, an idea came in the night: maybe Heart of the Westside neighbors with their own trucks and trailers would be willing to pick up their neighbors’ junk.
That said, the cleanup started with enough volunteers but no trucks and trailers. But then a gentleman with a truck and trailer came by, and it was now or never to see if the idea would work. We asked him if he would help, and he said yes! Then a second neighbor came by, and he said yes too!
Then in all of this, a miracle happened! One of our curbside pickups had a huge amount of junk that I was not about to ask a volunteer to pick up. But then as our second neighbor and couple of volunteers were driving back from the first curbside pickup, we saw they had gone ahead and loaded it up. Then the neighbor said “I can help get that hauled off.” Not only did he help haul off one trailer’s worth, he helped do four trips to get that one pickup done!
By time we had disposed of that huge load of junk, we finally had a couple of trucks and trailers to finish the list or curbside pickups. It was remarkable to see Heart of the Westside neighbors helping each other.
