Nomeites get busy during spring cleanup

Last Saturday, Nome kids were all aflutter around town with yellow trash bags, like bees out for spring pollen collection. They were participating in the annual City of Nome Spring Cleanup, which took place from Tuesday, May 28 through Saturday, June 1. There was free dumping at the Monofill, which saw 119 visits over five days. The town also offered a U-Call, We-Haul service which registered 146 requests during the same period, up over 30 percent from the past year’s events.
Most exciting were the yellow trash bags, though, for they were attached to prizes. If kids collected at least 12 yellow bags full of trash, they would be entered in a raffle to win one of five kids bicycles. The enticement was a success, both in the sense that there were dozens of kids and their parents out and about cleaning up town from winter’s mess, but also in that it taught the kids the invaluable lesson of town pride.
The event’s coordinator Angie Nguyen, said, “Even the Grinch’s heart would have grown seeing so many children outside running and laughing and excited to clean their town.”
Everyone contributed to the day’s effort. The Assistant Director of the Rec Center, Sean Norris volunteered many hours of his time to hand screen-print over 600 shirts before Saturday’s festivities even began. The Public Works crew, led by Aaron Cooper, bent over backward to meet every request of the citizens, all the while still performing their building and road maintenance duties.
At Old St. Joe’s on Saturday, the Lions Club commissioned Girls Scout Troop 352 to cook up wieners for all comers, where, inside, Nome Police Department Investigator Vince Nguyen sweetly offered a smattering of Nome swag to the kids. One could hear trash-collection strategy being exchanged nearby.
Even the library built anticipation for the week by recently incorporating books about the earth and keeping our environment clean during story time.
The City Department offered attention to the day by wearing green shirts.
Kids trying to win the bikes had to bring their full yellow bags to one of three dump sites around town, where they’d exchange the bags for raffle tickets. The Icy View dump truck site was worked by volunteers from the Anvil City Science Academy; the Winter Sports Association and Girl Scout Troup 354 took care of the dump site at the Rec Center; Credit Union 1’s volunteer team watched over the drop spot at the Recycling Center.
Leading with a big smile and an easy southern drawl, Micheal Jordan, recently appointed Community Service Officer at Credit Union 1, said he was happy to be working his first big event since taking on his new role and looked forward to working more with the community in future.
Angie Nguyen thanked Hanson’s, AC’s, NJUS, Quality Auto, and NSEDC for all donating to the event.
The day’s excitement crescendoed at Old St. Joe’s with City Manager Glenn Steckman, Angie Nguyen and Sean Norris gathering to tumble the drum and pull the winning raffle tickets. Kids sat rapt in attention to see if they’d win. Hot dogs were still being nibbled. Mrs. Nguyen presented each thrilled raffle winner with a certificate for a new bicycle and took their pictures, kids replete with joy, and the city is one heck of a lot cleaner.