Editorial/Op

A Mess and a Message

By  | 

    I can give you two good reasons to help Central Leadership for Tomorrow make the second annual “Central Cleanup Day” a big success this Saturday.  I can also tell you how to spend either a few minutes or a few hours helping, so let’s start with the time details.  If you can’t come out to the parking lot at Hooper and Sullivan Saturday at 8 AM and walk Central’s roads until 11 AM picking up trash, you can help by leaving your empty trash can out by the side of all major roads until noon.  If you do, you are likely to see the cleanup crews dropping a filled trash bag in your trash can here and there.  This will mean MUCH less work in going around picking up the bags of trash at the end of the morning.
    The Mess:  The most obvious reason to spend your Saturday morning cleaning up Central is the Mess.  No one likes to see our roadsides and ditches littered.  Is it your responsibility to clean up after inconsiderate people and pick up debris that fell off of garbage trucks?  No it is not, but that is why it is called community service, doing it just because you care and not because you have to.  Cooking in Central is just a few weeks away and what an added bonus that the crowds that come to Central once a year can see Central at its best.
    The Message:  More important, in my opinion, than cleaning up the Mess, is the Message we send to the community and to the next generation of leaders in the City of Central.  For our community, this event serves as a reminder, a Message that if you litter someone eventually has to clean it up.  Please think before you toss the soda can out of the window.  Still, the biggest Message is the one we send to the organizers of “Central Cleanup Day”, Central Leadership for Tomorrow, or CLT.
    CLT is a group of young Central citizens, 18-45, who have banded together to promote community involvement, voter registration, and support for worthwhile causes in the Central community.  These are young singles and young parents that are balancing jobs and kids and school and still are making time to do their part to improve this community.  Organized less than two years ago, CLT provides the children’s activities at Cooking in Central, participates in the Christmas parade and charitable events of the Christmas season, encourages voter registration and now is hosting the second annual Central Cleanup Day.
    So, if less trash on our roads and a more attractive Central motivates you, come out and help.  If you would like to but can’t, just leave your trash can out by the roadside until noon.  But most of all, if you are like me and are convinced that the long-term success and prosperity of the City of Central is directly dependent on our younger leaders, come out just as a show of support for CLT.  I hope to see you there, because Central Leadership for Tomorrow is Good News for a Great City.