by Devin Chicras
After a long break due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve reactivated our volunteer program – the West Hill Action Mob (WHAM) – and offered not one, but two ways to make a visible difference in the Skyway-West Hill community during July 2021.
WHAM Fireworks Cleanup
It’s the last year that consumer fireworks are legal in unincorporated King County, and predictably, the parking lots and public spaces around the Skyway business district were full of fireworks debris and other trash afterward. On July 5, 2021, neighbors came out to do something about it.
They put on West Hill Action Mob vests, grabbed some tools, bags, and snacks, and started working on cleaning up parking lots along Renton Avenue South from Skyway Grocery Outlet at 68th Avenue South to the now-vacant U.S. Bank at 76th Avenue South.
Thank you to Mark, Fin, Devin, Juul, Arwyn, Nancy, Lydia, Baby Claire, Alesia, and Yaya for putting in the work.
And thanks to community sponsors like The Motiv Group, Skyway Grocery Outlet, and Beach Comber Sports Bar & Grill for their major support of events like these!
Skyway Park Cleanup
We partnered with King County Parks to bring folks down to Skyway Park on July 21, 2021, for a work party. We covered the park from end to end, collecting everything from beer bottles to used tires discarded in blackberry bushes.
In total, we filled at least three 33-gallon bags full of trash, in addition to some larger pieces such as car parts, a rolling wardrobe rack, and a child-sized plastic basketball hoop.
Toward the end of the event, we took a few minutes to clear over two cubic yards of blackberry plants from around Taylor Creek.
We really enjoyed meeting everyone, and are very grateful to King County Parks’ Volunteer Program Coordinator, Crescent Calimpong, for organizing and leading this effort.
Like having a more engaged, informed, and vibrant community? You can make a huge impact by joining your neighbors in giving $5 or more a month to the leanest, hardest working all-volunteer nonprofit in the neighborhood.Â