Special Education students from Warsaw Community High School and Gateway Education donated their time and efforts to help with spring cleaning along downtown walkways.
(photo provided)

In conjunction with Earth Day, which was Monday, The city of Warsaw is celebrating “Community Clean Up Week.”

The week features several clean up efforts in the downtown area of Warsaw including sidewalk sweeping and picking up litter along the streets and flower beds. Community Clean Up Week began on Sunday, April 20, and will conclude Saturday.

According to Warsaw Common Council President and Director of Guidance at Warsaw Community High School ,Diane Quance, the city has partnered with the Kosciusko County Recycling Depot to offer several opportunities to get involved. Among these programs and services are several events that allow local students to learn the value of thinking “green” and giving back to the community.

On Tuesday, Quance and a group of special education students from WCHS and Gateway Education took time out of their day to try and make the downtown area gleam. Students and teachers, equipped with large brooms and garbage bags, surveyed local walkways for trash and debris.

“This year we decided to do a community clean up initiative in conjunction with KC Recycling, and one of the things that we wanted to do is do a kids clean up day,” said Quance. “We’ve had three groups of students from the high school come in and they’ve been sweeping all the downtown sidewalks and picking up all the trash and litter.

“We just want to encourage everybody, as you see all the kids working so hard out here … think about where you might be able to pick up trash and think about if you ever throw trash down because somebody does have to pick that up.”

Kids Clean Up Day featured two circuits, one at 10 a.m. that went to 11:30 a.m. and another at 1 p.m. that went to 2:30 p.m. Students who took part in the clean up efforts rode on buses to the Warsaw City Hall, 102 S. Buffalo St., and fanned out across the downtown area from there.

Though the Kids Clean Up Day featured a large turnout, this will not be the only event local students attend. Local scout groups also met at 6 p.m. yesterday to help clear litter out of flower beds and additional groups will be visiting the downtown area later in the week. At 9 a.m. Thursday, Kosciusko Youth Endowment students representing five area high schools will be cleaning local alleyways.

On Friday, WCHS students will take part in BLITZ, or Bringing Light Into the Tiger Zone. Students will split up and service several community agencies with cleaning, painting and preparing their business for the spring season.