Reflective vests were the ubiquitous uniform of the few dozen volunteers who gathered early April 19 outside Little Village Play Cafe to take their marching orders from Bridget Ward.
"Safety first," Ward said as she distributed the neon orange and yellow vests, as well as plastic gloves, garbage bags, buckets and trash-grabbing claws, to a mix of parents, kids and other neighbors. Also — optional, but very much in demand — Cranky's donuts outside and Little Village coffee inside.
Ward is a board member of the East Tosa Business Improvement District, or BID, and she and other BID leaders had organized this Sunday morning clean-up of North Avenue as one of the first public-facing events since the commercial strip from 60th Street to 76th Street was approved last fall as an official business improvement district.
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The strong turnout for the clean-up was welcomed by BID leaders. "This is awesome," Anna Jarecki, a BID board member and owner of Nourish Skin and Sugar Studio, told Tosa Forward News as the volunteers were preparing to fan out along North Avenue to grab trash.
The East Tosa businesses organized a similar trash clean-up a year ago, before the BID was finalized, but this year's turnout seemed even bigger, Jarecki said. "I think more people are paying attention."