A volunteer hands out water as the Pomona Fellowship and Cristo Scion congregations of the Church of the Brethren partnered with the City of Pomona, Calif., to clean up the town on May 9, 2015.
The Pomona Fellowship and Cristo Scion congregations of the Church of the Brethren partnered with the City of Pomona, Calif., to clean up the town on May 9. Who could know what this day would hold even with all the explanations given ahead of time? It became everything and more than we thought it would be.
Once a year the City of Pomona sets up a local collection site and invites all residents to bring house and yard wastes for disposal without the cost they would have incurred if they had gone to the local dump. For the past four years Pomona Fellowship Church of the Brethren has donated the parking lot for this project. This year Cristo Scion worked alongside with Pomona Fellowship to distribute water to the community and crew. In addition, individual members of both congregations spent time speaking to individuals on various topics including church services and the soccer field.
The first city vehicle arrived at 6 a.m. and set up the oil station. By noon they had collected 18 drums of oil and 35 oil filters. Soon after 6 a.m. came the first of the e-waste crew and they were constantly busy loading the two extremely large collection trucks with televisions, computers, and other e-waste. Then started the constant arrival of the trucks with the dump bins. As one bin was filled a truck removed it and replaced it with an empty bin. At noon when the project ended, 18 bins were carted away.
We did not keep total accounting on the number of vehicles that came to be unloaded but most times during the day the traffic was backed up out of the parking lot, and down the street for more than a block. But the wait was not long for anyone, and during the day it was estimated by city employees that there were more than 100 vehicles per hour. Some vehicles were seen in line five times with full loads. Notably, one resident came in a U-Haul truck twice, one rode a bicycle pulling a cart, and even one person dragged a child’s wagon.
Many thanks to all who volunteered for the day: Linda Lovelace and Jessie Marsiglio of the Service and Outreach Commission; Allison Sampson with Eli and Cooper who were our most enthusiastic workers; Jerry Davis; pastor David Flores and members of Cristo Scion. Since we did not use a sign-in sheet some names may have been omitted inadvertently, and we apologize for any lapse.
— This report was provided to Newsline by Jessie Marsiglio.