More than 75 local high school students and about a dozen community volunteers gathered this weekend to help beautify Chollas Creek Park and Hawk Project Park in a cleanup effort led by the Urban Collaborative Project, the Harvey Family Foundation, and partners including I Love a Clean San Diego, who organizes the annual Coastal Cleanup Day, San Diego’s largest single-day environmental cleanup effort in and around San Diego County.
“This cleanup is long overdue,” said Barry Pollard, CEO of the Urban Collaborative Project. “It’s good to see the residents coming up. You know, there’s kids that are cleaning up, and that’s what it needs. I want this to be more frequent. If at all possible, bring yourselves out here and help.”
The event marked the first community cleanup for the group in the corridor, which spanned Market Street, 47th Street, Imperial Avenue, and Euclid Avenue. Arman Harvey, Executive Director of the Harvey Family Foundation, said the goal is to “beautify the community” while also building a culture of care and responsibility. “Our community is beautiful, but we have to come together to maintain it. We deserve to be in a beautiful community,” Harvey said.
Youth participation was a key focus. Marilaine Kateroque of the Urban Collaborative Project emphasized that the work done by local students—including those from Morse High School, Lincoln High School, and the Elementary Institute of Science—is being recorded for potential school credit. Those credits will also prove helpful for future college applications.
It is evident that the participating students were not just volunteers; they are the next generation of leaders, stepping up to care for their community. And community organizations like the Urban Collaborative and The Harvey Foundation are there to help shepherd the way.
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