Hibbing Hosts 4th Annual Community Clean-up Days Event
When I scrolled past a flyer on the city of Hibbing Facebook page announcing this weekend’s Hibbing Clean-up Community Days I took it as an opportunity to free up a bit of space in the garage where like a lot of people I’ve taken to putting the things I didn’t feel like dealing with for awhile, out of sight out of mind right? Anyway being lazy caught up to me with a lack of space so bingo! Problem solved. Just load up the car with a couple things, a quick trip and done!
Five trips, 3 hours and a coughing fit from dust my garage no longer held two old mattresses, a pile of broken sporting equipment, scattered items from when the kids moved out….almost a decade ago. Rusty tools that I’m sure I intended to fix at some point and one massive moving crate with a broken lid that had claimed the space a car used to fit for a while.
On my first trip to Stuntz Garage on 25th Street in Hibbing I was a bit embarrassed by my hoarding ways but I quickly discovered I’m an amateur compared to some people. I arrived to find a line of cars, trucks, vans, trailers, even a few uhauls bringing in everything from broken kids toys to enough building waste to rehab a city block.
The process was remarkably efficient with volunteers in orange shirts going from car to car giving directions as to where to unload different items to help carry the heavy stuff.
On my final trip hauling my own items I got to chatting with some of the organizers and asked about the idea of doing a story on the event. I was met with a counter idea of volunteering to help out and get a first hand experience. I walked right into the trap but honestly it was a fantastic idea. I’ve spent decades telling other peoples stories from the outside and since this is a new idea in media why not try a new approach?
I agreed, returned shortly with my cameras and spent some time gathering visuals of the activity. After getting what I needed to tell a good story of the organized chaos I put the cameras down, grabbed a blaze orange Hibbing t-shirt, a pair of work gloves and jumped right in offering an elderly couple a hand unloading the broken kitchen stove they had wrangled into the back of their van. After that it was two hours of non stop moving from dumpster to dumpster, unloading tires, mattresses, kids toys, construction debris, scrap metal, two really heavy snow blowers, microwave ovens, windows, doors, unidentifiable piles of….something in a non stop parade of people freeing up space in their homes.
Talking to volunteers I found out that this weekend’s event was actually the 4th annual clean up day, I somehow missed the last three and that just by tracking the cars it’s estimated that this year’s clean up is going to surpass last year’s record 70 tons of trash dropped off. The all volunteer effort was put together by the Hibbing Police Department and the City of Hibbing with volunteers from the city, the high school’s key club and a group of Walmart employees.
I was worn out after two hours hats off to those who put in an eight hour shift Friday and will be back at it once again Saturday all for the belief that a clean city leads to a happier city.
After a bit of rest, and before I go to the Hibbing High School graduation. I am going to take a look at my now slightly more spacious garage and I will feel happy.
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