Every Thursday morning all summer, I’ve been getting up at 5 a.m. for an appearance on “Channel 3 This Morning,” where the anchors and I raffle off a prize on live TV. The names in the plastic hopper belong to Vermont students in kindergarten through eighth grade who are participating in the Good Citizen Challenge, Seven Days‘ youth civics project. They do activities such as raise money for local charities and pick up trash in public places.
After last week’s segment, I spent an hour and a half doing the latter myself as part of the BTV Clean Up Crew, which meets every Thursday at 7:30 a.m. at the top of Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace. A group of volunteers roams the streets downtown picking up trash and used needles — an adult version of the Good Citizen Challenge. It’s the perfect complement to the Wednesday night passeggiata — an evening stroll to support local businesses — that publisher Paula Routly wrote about in this column in May.
The weekly cleanups, organized by Kason Hudman of the Peace & Justice Center, began around that same time. Hudman, 31, was part of a now-defunct BTV Clean Up Crew that removed stickers promoting white nationalist groups. He revived the concept and changed its focus after 100-plus business owners signed a letter urging city officials to make downtown cleaner and safer. He said he was frustrated and disheartened when the location of free lunches distributed mostly to homeless people by Food Not Cops became the focal point of the discussion.
Hudman noted that improving the city’s appearance was part of the letter’s agenda and thought, That sounds like something we can actually take care of. The cleanups, he said, were a way “to bring the community back together.”
Participation numbers have ranged from just five at the first gathering to up to 50 or 60. A multigenerational group of 16 volunteers showed up last week. Hudman and some Gen Z members mixed with the gray hairs, including me and a semiretired nurse. Michele Asch, chief people officer from Winooski’s Twincraft Skincare, represented the business community. Sam Donnelly, executive director of the recently launched nonprofit Building Burlington’s Future, turned out, too — not for the first time.
“Instead of complaining, we need to get in there and fix things as best we can.” Debra Clemmer
The newbies signed waivers absolving the organizers from liability in case one of us got poked by a needle. We set off armed with latex gloves, trash bags, trash pickers and durable plastic containers for sharp objects. One group ambled toward Elmwood Avenue, while ours meandered down Church Street and its surrounds.
At first we didn’t find much. I started picking up cigarette butts, but a veteran reminded me that we should focus on larger items so we could cover more ground.
We collected an array of paper trash and plastic junk, along with a discarded sign on a piece of plywood that read “Sad End.” Indeed.
If we came upon a needle, we were supposed to yell to the group for a sharps container. Nobody did, that I could hear, until we arrived at Memorial Auditorium. “Someone on SeeClickFix” — an app where users can flag problems for the city — “reported active drug use in this area last night, so let’s check it out,” Hudman said. Sure enough, we found needles and other rubbish, including a Ben & Jerry’s pint container spilling over with butts. “Best trash!” someone exclaimed.
We found more needles in an alley behind Church Street stores. I stumbled upon people injecting drugs when I mistakenly approached a group that I thought was my cleanup crew.
It made me sad to see them, but they didn’t shock me. I walk through downtown many mornings on my way to work past people sleeping on Church Street and surreptitiously exchanging small packages in City Hall Park. And, of course, I’ve followed Seven Days‘ coverage of the city — including Derek Brouwer’s cover story this week about the complexities of the homelessness crisis, which is well worth the read.
Related
As Encampments Surge in Burlington, Two Men Address Problems
What surprised me was how empowering it felt to clean up the streets with others. That and how many people thanked us. First it was a smiling guy in a Unified Parking Partners shirt with his own set of grabbers, picking up trash in the former Walgreens lot on South Winooski Avenue. Then it was passersby on their way to work, a bearded guy on a bike and a woman walking through the City Market parking lot, hustling into the nearby bagel shop, yelling, “Come by Willow’s! We’ll spoil you!”
Along the way, I talked with my fellow picker-uppers, many of whom had done this before. Several said friends from Food Not Cops had mentioned the meetup. “The manager at the Y told me,” offered Debra Clemmer, a nurse who works a few days a week at the Chittenden Clinic, an addiction treatment center. This was her fourth cleanup.
Why does she do it? Burlington has changed a lot since she moved here in 1988, she said, adding: “I really care about the city. I think instead of complaining, we need to get in there and fix things as best we can.”
As the group finished up, a tall, cheery participant named Mark Alexander sent us on our way with words of encouragement: “Happy Trash Day, everyone! See you next time.” I’ll be back.
This article appears in Aug 13-19, 2025.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
