April 17, 2008

Volunteers from all over District 10 showed up at 8:30 in the morning at the Pat Dando Hoffman Via Monte Neighborhood Center before going out on the streets to pick up litter and trash. Photos by Chanel Nijmeh

Volunteers help clean up District 10

More than 40 volunteers showed up bright and early on Saturday, April 12 to help clean up District 10’s litter.

Participants in the city’s seventh annual Great American Litter Pickup were at the Pat Dando Hoffman/Via Monte Neighborhood Center at 8:30, ready to go out in force and clean up litter throughout the district. Among the areas cleaned were the streets and parks around the Dando Hoffman/Via Monte Center and around Pioneer High School. The volunteers picked up more than 20 bags of litter from several areas. That compares with almost 1,000 volunteers throughout San Jose filling more than 400 garbage bags, up about 60 percent from last year.

Paige Durand, left, and her mom Eileen Durand came out because it was a beautiful day and Paige, a sixth grader at Holy Family School, wanted to increase her volunteer hours.

The anti-litter program has been a successful collaborative effort among key partners including: The Valley Transportation Agency, Santa Clara County, Santa Clara Valley Water District, Cal Trans, Green Team of San Jose, California Waste Solutions, Garden City Sanitation, Green Waste, the City of Campbell, the City of Sunnyvale, the City of Gilroy, Santa Clara County District Attorneys Office, Keep San Jose Beautiful, Volunteer Center of Silicon Valley, Green Challenge, Silicon Valley Anti-Litter Campaign, The San Jose Alameda Business Association, Japan Town Business Association, San Jose Down-town Association, Strong Neighborhoods Initiative, and many other neighborhood associations, schools, community organizations and businesses.