Clean sweep

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Posted April 22, 2024 | By Andy Fillmore, andy@ocalagazette.com

The 2024 Mayor’s Spring Cleanup event on April 20 saw about 500 volunteers roll up their sleeves and collect debris and trash from roadways across the city of Ocala.

The assemblage of volunteers was possibly the largest turnout ever, according to event organizers. The workers picked up carelessly discarded materials ranging from driftwood to drywall at 44 venues, including roadways, areas near schools and businesses, and other landmarks.

Kalyn Long, 13, was one of nine Fort King Middle School students who cleaned along Northeast 3rd Street from Northeast 8th Avenue to Northeast 25th Avenue. Woodlawn and Greenwood cemeteries and Heritage Nature Conservatory are located on the roadway. The students, accompanied by teachers Kennedy Payne and Natascha Martinez, and Kalyn’s mom, Vicki Reynolds, filled 11 large contractor-size plastics bags with trash and debris, from beer cans to a section of steel cable. Kalyn snagged the trophy item during the group’s cleanup; a couch cushion found along Southeast 3rd Street.

The once annual event was skipped for a time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Saturday’s cleanup was the first for Ocala Mayor Ben Marciano, who took office last December.

“It was an awesome day. People of all walks of life and ages came together for this important cause,” Marciano said, praising the participants.

Employees and family members from Cummins Sales and Service gathered enough trash to fill 21 large bags along Southwest 44th Avenue from State Road 40 to Southwest 20th Street. Todd Whetsell hauled the bags by trailer from the work area to the central collection dumpster near the Discovery Science Center in Tuscawilla Park, where a city sponsored EarthFest Arbor Day event was taking place. Whetsell said this was the twelfth year for the Cummins group to join the cleanup, as he tossed the bags and several large items, such as a semi-trailer mudflap, a glass pane, drywall and more, into the dumpster.

Dwayne Drake, the city of Ocala’s Sanitation Division Head, was posted near the site to help the volunteers.

Edwin Farmer, a Vanguard High School teacher and varsity football coach, said about 25 students learned a good lesson and got a workout when they cleaned an area that included near several businesses along Northwest 35th Avenue Road and Northwest 35th Street to North Pine Avenue. Farmer said the group encountered a large pile of trash at one location, which Marciano said they “tackled.” Farmer said the students made the work a fun competition.

Marciano worked around 9 a.m. with a group of about 50 employees and family members from the nonprofit youth mentoring organization Kut Different. The group cleaned along Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue from Northwest 4th Street to Northwest 27th Avenue, including areas around the Madison Street Academy of Visual and Performing Arts and Ocala Fire Rescue Station Number 1.

Reginald, 13, thought the cleanup was a good way to give back to the community while Demarcus, 14, was pleased to join and bond with friends, from third grader Nolan to volunteers in their 40s.

Myles McConico, Kut Different’s director of community engagement, and Rory Carter, a mentor, worked with the youth. McConico said the workday helped the young volunteers “feel engaged” while Carter saw the cleanup as a way to build a “better community” and strong brotherhood.

The volunteer cleanup crews also included: ECO Knights, Mary Baum, Delta Sigma Theta, the Williford Family, War Horse HOG Chapter 5115, Boy Scout Troop 172 and Cub Scout Pack 172, Silver River Mentoring and Instruction, HDG Hotels, Alpha Kappa Alpha, The Cornerstone School, Diya Youth Group India Association of Ocala, Angela McCants/Darren Park, Lucky Learners 4-H, the Hayes Family and Cherubz, Inc.