To the 60-plus volunteers who came out on Saturday, April 5, for our first Chestnut Hill Litter Cleanup (CHLC), and the many more who joined the Jenks’ Home and School Association and the Friends of the Wissahickon to pick up around the school and along Lincoln Drive:

THANK YOU!  

When we say, “It takes a village,” you are the ones we are talking about.  You (including the 3-, 6- and 16-year-olds who volunteered) are the very best of us.

It can be uncomfortable picking up cigarette butts, tissues and fast-food leftovers; bad owners’ dog poop; and sewer-bound decaying leaves along curbs and sidewalks one may not even have traveled.  But CHLC volunteers fanned out across Germantown Avenue and many residential streets to make our neighborhood SHINE for EVERYONE.

Thank you, also, to the many entities that supported this effort with their various contributions:  

The Chestnut Hill Community Association, CH Conservancy and CH Business District

Char & Stave, McNally’s, Cosimo’s, Night Kitchen and Baker Street Bread Co.

And PA State Representative Tarik Khan by coming out to cheer us on!

Moving forward, please help continue to control the litter across our community. 

1. Regularly check the front of your property, apartment building, or store – end to end, from the curb to the fence, especially on trash days – and bin whatever doesn’t belong.  
2. Get bin lids and take extra care on windy trash days.
3. Prune your shrubs, trees and plants to keep the sidewalks passable.
4. Ask your work crews to bag their trash or pick up after them if anything is left behind.
5. For dog owners and walkers: pick up their poop, no ifs, ands or butts! 
6. Think about the Wissahickon and keep debris in front of your house from going to the sewers. (And be an even better neighbor by adopting an inlet on your street!)

Our town (curb, sidewalk, greenspace – you name it!) is not an ashtray or a dump.  It’s a shared home.  Let’s work together to keep it clean, green and beautifully walkable for everyone.

Beth Wright

Organizer, CH Litter Cleanup