Mariana Silva

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Daily Kent Stater

The City of Kent and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. have partnered for what may be the first time students have ever volunteered to help clean the streets of Kent after Halloween.

“We figured why not move outside the campus and do something that can involve the entire city, specially in a time that—Halloween is such a big deal—it can get kind of rowdy,” said Alascia Jones, president of the Delta Sigma Theta chapter at Kent State. “People are all over the place and when everybody goes to sleep you find craziness.”

Eugene Roberts, Kent’s service director, said this is the first time he knows of students volunteering to clean the city after Halloween. He said normally the job is left to the city, business owners, residents and Kent State.

“This year sounds like Kent State students have stepped up and are willing to say ‘OK, we were part of the party the night before and now we are going to help clean up our party leftovers,’” Roberts said.

Jones said more than 150 people, including other organizations on campus and individuals, registered for the event and that she is still hearing from people who want to participate even though Monday was the deadline for registration.

She said although individuals and groups are still encouraged to register, people are welcome to just tag along for the cleanup.

“We are just glad we had such a good response and that people actually want to help. We didn’t really know what was going to happen, this is the first time we ever did anything like this. So we are just happy we had a good response,” Jones said.

The students will meet from 11 a.m. to approximately 2 p.m. on Sunday at the rock between Franklin and White halls at Main Street. After that, Jones said students will be divided up into five to six groups of 20 to 25 people each to clean the streets between River Street and Midway Drive. SCREAMS FOR A LOCATOR MAP.

Judy Smith, a Lincoln Street resident who has lived in Kent for six decades, said it’s about time students clean after themselves. But she added Kent State students are not the only ones to blame.

She said Halloween’s garbage and damage has gotten worse in the past 15 years as more people come celebrate Halloween in Kent.

The celebration in Kent is a spontaneous event not organized by the city, university or group.

“The more kids, the more drunks, the more trash,” Smith said. “You have one person, that’s not going to leave that much (trash) but if everybody leaves a piece of something, you are going to have more.”

Smith said glass bottles, empty and full beer cans, clothing, shoes and wigs are some of the commonly found items is her yard after Halloween.

“It would be beneficial to have them clean up after the fact and it would be more beneficial to be down there (downtown) and police themselves to not put (trash) where it doesn’t belong,” Smith said. “There shouldn’t be a cleanup, there shouldn’t have to be a cleanup. They should police themselves and act like adults if they want to be adults”

PERIOD.

Roberts said the city is donating about 150 trash bags and other smaller bags, and 200 pairs of gloves to aid the students in their volunteer work, WHICH STARTED WITH THE SORORITY’S REQUEST TO THE CITY.

which was asked by the sorority. He added a city employee will collect the bags after the students are done FINISHED COLLECTING.collecting the trash.

Roberts say they are glad to provide the resources even if it means a slight increase in what would be spent for cleaning after Halloween. On top of the bags and gloves expense, the city will pay overtime to the employee collecting the trash bags.

Although the city will be getting volunteers to help collect what is left after Halloween, Roberts said the central maintenance division will continue to do the job they do every year after the celebration, starting downtown at about 2 a.m. on Sunday.

Jones said volunteers are encouraged to pick up all they can find and, if possible, separate garbage from recyclables.

“We just want them to pick up everything: cigarette butts, bottles, cans, old pieces of costume, whatever might be left on the street. It’s just a city cleanup,” Jones said.

“And even if there are things that were there before Halloween, just to clean the city, period,” Jones said. “It just happens to be after Halloween, because that is when it’s worse, but this is just a nice gesture in general for the residents of Kent.”