Dreamers Co. cleans up around city
Volunteers with the Dreamers Co. got to work last week cleaning up yards and sidewalks in Washington.
About 30 middle and high school students and some of their parents showed up Friday and Saturday to help.
“To have this many young people coming out on a Friday to help out is just great,” Todd Ashmore, one of the board of directors for the Dreamers Co., said Friday morning.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the nonprofit couldn’t hold its annual Mission Washington, which is typically the first week of June, when more than 100 young volunteers help with yard work and home renovation projects throughout the city. The planning for it starts months in advance, and because of the uncertainty throughout the pandemic, the week was canceled.
“We have over 100 volunteers for that, and there’s just no social distancing,” Ashmore said. “We came up with this idea instead because people were calling us asking if there’s anything they can do to help.”
This past weekend they took on smaller-scale project with a smaller group of volunteers to help out neighbors and clean up sidewalks, while wearing masks and social distancing.
Nikki Jones, a youth pastor for Life Church in Washington, said she, too, had many of her youth group participants asking about community projects this summer.
“We had students reaching out to see how they could move some of these projects forward in Washington,” Jones said Friday.
They started at a residence on Allison Avenue, where an older resident has had some difficulty keep up with her yard, Ashmore said. They trimmed trees, bushes, weeded the sidewalk, and removed stumps and large areas of tall grass.
“We’re mostly sticking to yard work, so we can stay outdoors and distanced from each other,” Ashmore said. “Probably when we’re working closely together, we’ll have masks on, but it’s going to be hot, so we’ll try to avoid that.”
They moved to Jefferson Avenue to trim trees and brush that was growing almost into the street.
“You can barely walk through there because it’s overgrown and hanging over the sidewalk,” Ashmore said.
The organization is planning another weekend of volunteer work Aug. 7 and 8.