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DECEMBER 2021
www.GlobeMiamiTimes.com
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – MARGARET MEAD, AMERICAN CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGIST
Community Clean-up, Continued from page 1 Aimee Staten, the Grants Administrator for Gila County, organized Gila PROUD initially to clean up the wildcat dumping out in the desert and in the watersheds, but her focus grew. Staten explains, “I didn’t really want to move here because I had only ever seen the highway. I realized after arriving how beautiful our community actually is. This is not obvious from the highway, with weeds sprouting out of the sidewalks and trash blowing up against the hillsides.” She stepped up to make a difference. “My desire was to be a part of something to show the world that our community is as beautiful outside as it is inside.” Her efforts coincided and then merged with others who wanted to do the same. At a community forum, Sheryl Cormack, with the U.S. Forest Service, suggested cleaning up trash did not need to be a large formal solution but could start sooner and smaller with flash-mob style events. A flash mob is a sudden gathering by a large group of people in a public place. The group appears to gather spontaneously, usually performs a dance or song, and then quickly disperses. The fun and spontaneity of those events inspired the Cormack’s group, and the Trash Mob was born. When Regina Ortega-Leonardi, with the Cathy SanchezCañez Memorial Foundation, stepped up to head the cleanups, things really started to move. “I always wanted to see these events happen, but it really took Regina and her
outstanding organizational skills to launch our group,” says Michelle Yerkovich, the City of Globe’s Code Enforcement Officer. For her efforts, the USFS honored Ortega-Leonardi as their 2020 Volunteer of the Year. “We had the idea that we could come for a short amount of time and pick up a grocery bag full of trash,” Yerkovich explains. “Even twenty minutes will help. People responded really positively to this.” The first Trash Mob clean-up was in September 2020 after the Globe-Miami football game, with the group cleaning under and around the bleachers. The second event was a COVID-safe “drive-through” effort at the Globe ranger station. “We had to use outside-the-box thinking to manage the issue of garbage amidst a pandemic,” Yerkovich says. The clean-up efforts were paused during the summer due to the fires and floods. The group shifted to filling sandbags and distributing them to the elderly, handicapped, and economically challenged. They restarted their clean-ups in September. Trash Mob events have been well received by the community. Even during COVID, they have had more than 100 people show up to help, with a core group of 30 people who consistently participate.
“After only the first few clean-ups, we filled eight 33-gallon trash cans and 32 F150 truck loads,” OrtegaLeonardi says. This is in addition to scrap metal recycling and large dumpsters available at each event. Tim Ralston, with Capstone’s Pinto Valley Mine, supports the Trash Mob efforts. Capstone sends team members to participate and rents six-yard dumpsters for each event while covering the $99 dump fee each time a dumpster is emptied. For one large two-day clean-up, Capstone invested $10,000 to rent four 40-yard dumpsters and pay dump fees ($53 per ton) as these receptacles were constantly filled, emptied, and refilled throughout the event. While most Trash Mob events last two hours and happen on the second Saturday of each month, the group also supports bigger clean-up efforts - such as a two-day blight reduction event. They try to rotate their monthly focus between Globe, Miami, and San Carlos, and they welcome anyone to join them.
COMMUNITY CLEAN-UP, Continued on page 23
“The time to clean our city of any dirt begins with individual action for collective clean communities.” ― LAILAH GIFTY AKITA
“Clean communities, healthy citizens.” ― LAILAH GIFTY AKITA
