Betmar Lavilla Neighborhood Assoc.

I lived in Sylvan Hills for 10 years on Melrose Drive, which - most would agree - is one of the nicest and cleanest streets in Sylvan Hills.  For the first few years, I would personally go out every Sunday morning and pick up all the litter on the street - from the start until the end of the entire street.  This became frustrating because week after week, I still continued to collect between 3 and 4 garbage bags full of trash.  This made me realize that I was only addressing the symptom of the problem and not the problem - which was that there was a group of people in the community who had not been taught not to litter.  To address the bigger problem, I spent the last seven years working with a group of children from the neighborhood.  We started the Sylvan Hills Clean Up Crew.  The goals of the SHCUC were to educate people against littering, encourage people to recycle, and increase pride in our community.  Every Sunday morning, I paid 5-6 children $6 an hour to pick up trash on the street and/or go door to door distributing pamphlets about the impact of littering/ not recycling, etc.  The children created the pamphlets themselves.  The pamphlets included the children's personal stories about why they wanted to live in a litter-free, green community.  (You may have recieved one of these phamplets.) I thought it was important for the children to recieve compensation for their work because I wanted them to become aware that it is possible to have a job doing something positive for one's community.  I also paid them because I realized that children are no different than you and me - we like to get paid for our work, and so do they.  The SHCUC may not have solved all the problems with litter but it certainly put a big dent in the problem - especially on Melrose.  I no longer live in the community, but if you are concerned about litter, you may want to consider starting an organization like the SHCUC. Good luck!