YAKIMA, Wash.- Several people who live and work near Miller Park are taking action into their own hands to keep their city clean.
Aaron Siebol works downtown with Haute Ballroom and lives only minutes away, driving by the park most days. Seeing trash left in the grass and streets, he rounded up originations like Saint Andrews’ Church and the Woman’s Century Club to clean.
“There are just pockets where it can be a little bit more trashy than others,” says Siebol. “We’re just trying to make everything, you know, fairly equal and help make it more beautiful.”
In the second cleanup event he’s organized, nearly a dozen volunteers joined in, picking up trash as far as three blocks from Miller Park.
Some who helped Siebol clean, shared the same frustrations of seeing trash everyday.
“When I look at my classroom window and there’s trash everywhere, it’s kind of like, ‘oh, like I can do something to fix that,'” says Lizzy Scott who works blocks away from the park. “That’s something very tangible to be helping our city kind of be elevated.”
Cleaning their parks and taking more pride in their city to help break the conceptions of the downtown area.
“People have a pretty negative view of Yakima, especially like this part of town,” says Emma Whitworth. “So, it’s nice to be able to give back and help that along a little bit, because I think we do really have a cool city. It just needs a little love sometimes.”
Siebol says he aims to have a cleanup event once a month, and with more volunteers, tackling weeds and graffiti in other Yakima neighborhoods.
“For me, it’s extremely important to actually be involved locally, like as much as possible in your neighborhoods in like maybe with your neighbor,” says Siebol. “I think the more localized, the bigger the impact.”
