Thanks for cleaning up our community

Spectrum

byDianne Keller

I would like to thank the residents of Wasilla and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough for their active participation during the "Wasilla Clean Up Days" that were held May 5-10. Our community is a much more beautiful place because you chose to assist with the clean up of our community. As I helped with the collection of prize tickets, I got the opportunity to interact with people who "got their hands dirty" to assist with the event. The crowd was abuzz with the anticipation of who would win in each category, and Boy Scout Troop #300 informed me that they found $41 while cleaning up along the Parks Highway. Their efforts really paid off in more ways than one!

The City of Wasilla has broken the prize categories into several groups: People over 12 years, people under 12 and for group participation. I would like to thank all of the individuals and groups who won prizes for most bags collected for their hard work and dedication.

For the individual 12 years and older, Alvin Smith won a bicycle for his 108 bags collected and Shaun Sanderlin collected 50 bags to win a $50 gift certificate from Fred Meyer and a one-month gold pass to the Alaska Club. Austin Smith took third place in this category by collecting 33 bags. For his efforts he won a $50 AIH gift certificate and a $30 gift certificate from Fred Meyer.

For the individual 12 years and under, Karl Rathbon collected 92 bags, and Sarah Tucker collected eight bags. Each child won a new bike for collecting the most bags by a male and female child. Avery Smith came in second place for collecting 60 bags and he won four movie passes and a toy of his choice. The third place winner for this category was Anthony Smith who picked up 38 bags of garbage to win three movie passes and a toy of his choice.

Boy Scout Troop #338 collected 197 bags of trash which netted them $175 for their efforts and the New Life Church collected 90 bags and received $125 in cash. The Gilpin Family received $100 for their 89 bags collected while the Wasilla Bible Youth Group received $75 for their 21 bags of garbage collected. This type of participation shows a win/win for all groups involved, the community is now cleaner, while each group received a cash prize that will assist with fundraising efforts for their individual causes.

An event like this could not be as successful without volunteers and sponsors. The city of Wasilla had 28 business partners for this event and the total cash value of their contributions was $3,058.01. Each partner deserves special recognition for their dedication to ensure this event was successful. I would like to thank Wal-Mart and BP for their $500 cash contribution and the VFW for their cash donation of $250. Matanuska Valley Credit Union, Wells Fargo and Matanuska Telephone Association each donated $100 cash toward the sponsorship of Wasilla Clean Up Days.

Several other businesses in our community donated things for this event such as advertising, gift certificates and food items. I would like to thank Fred Meyer for their prize contribution as well as the use of their parking area to host the event, Mat-Su Cinema, the Frontiersman, Matanuska Valley Credit Union, Alaska Industrial Hardware, the Alaska Club, Burger King, Lube Express, Blockbuster Video, D&A Shoprite, Taco Bell, Subway, Landscape supply, Spenard Builders Supply, All-I-Saw Cookware, the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce, Carrs Quality Center and GCI for donating several prizes and gift certificates. By partnering is this manner, it allowed every participant of our event to receive a special something as our way to say "Thank You for all you have done to make our community a cleaner place to live, work and play."

I would be amiss if I did not recognize the efforts of The Wasilla Lions Club (especially Bob & Judy Lucas) who cooked hot dogs and served our hungry participants. We also need to thank Wasilla Refuse for the use of their trash receptacles and to their employees Rudy Arrington, Lee Hickle, Debby Dowel and Earl Smith who helped with the trash collection. Several individuals volunteered their time to make this event successful; I want to especially thank Bekki Schwartz and Sherie Kuehn -- special thanks because you were instrumental in the success of this event. Thanks go to our newest employee Tonya Cribb. She stepped into this event already planned and she has said that she is excited about next year's event because she would like to change things a bit to spice it up.

Because of everyone's combined efforts, Wasilla collected 1,037 bags of garbage which weighed in at 12.12 tons. That's a lot of garbage, and what a difference that has made for our community! Special thanks go to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough for allowing free dumping because without waiving the dump fees it would have cost a small fortune to dispose of all that trash.

Next year, the City of Wasilla would like to host two collection points and possibly add recycling to the event. I would also like to see if we can reach an all time high of garbage collected- to collect more than 15 tons would be a historic event. I would like to again thank everyone for all of their efforts and dedication and for putting the unity in our commUNITY.

Dianne M. Keller is the mayor of Wasilla.