By David Taber

City officials estimate over 400 residents turned out from all 7 wards and picked up 3.25 tons of trash that day as part of Somerville Clean Up Day. 

“This is the nicest weather we have had in all the years we have been doing this,” Alderman-At-Large William A. White, said of the annual event, which the city has hosted for 22 years.

Ward 6 Alderperson Rebekah Gewirtz and Paul Bockelman, who represents Ward 6 on the School Committee, coordinated efforts for Davis Square and the surrounding area from the tables in Statue Park.

“A lot of people feel like they can use Statue Park as an ash tray,” Bockelman said.

Lisa Mcfarren, of the canine advocacy group SomDog, agreed.  ‚ÄúI have picked up three bags of cigarette butts so far,‚Äù she said. 

Around the corner and up Holland Avenue a couple of blocks, Jonathan Winikoff worked with his two young children, Sarah and Sam, to clean up the area around a row of hedges next to the sidewalk.

‚ÄúWe pass this corner every day on our way to the train, it makes us upset because it is always so dirty,‚Äù Winickoff said. 

He said they each pick up a piece of trash everyday when they pass the hedges, but the clean up day seemed like a great opportunity to get the upper hand against litter. 

After the clean up portion of the clean up day, which lasted from 10 a.m. to noon, was done, the city hosted a barbeque at Nunziato Field and the first ever Somergreen festival at The Growing Center community garden next door. 

Over 20 activist and community groups and green businesses, as well as the producers of a National Public Radio show called Living on Earth, set up informational tables at the festival to raise awareness about their respective projects and services.

“It’s a great opportunity for people to come learn about the different groups working to help the environment and beautify the community,” said Peter Kwass of Groundwork Somerville, an environmental education group that co-sponsored the Somergreen festival.

Kwass said the main project Groundwork Somerville is working on is an effort to promote gardening in city schools through a program called Growing Healthy School Gardens. 

‚ÄúThe idea is to get kids engaged in growing healthy foods so they will want to eat those foods and get healthy,‚Äù Kwass said.