Volunteers Gather to Clean up Downtown Waukesha

Readers of this column know that I am passionate about volunteering.  At the beginning of this week, I received a call from Waukesha resident Ron Kading, who I worked with on the campaign when Mayor Jeff Scrima was elected.

 Ron informed me that a community collaboration between Jeff Scrima and the BID of downtown Waukesha was being organized for a downtown Waukesha clean up.  It was explained to me that the street sweepers can only do so much.

 We would be picking up garbage and doing some weeding.  My friend Elisha, who will be a senior at Carroll University, loves volunteer work and decided to join me. There were about 20 of us total who were walking around strategically with garbage bags, garbage pickers and various weeding tools. The BID did their part by providing us with doughnuts for breakfast, pizza for lunch and keeping us hydrated throughout the day with water and soda, and it was hot out.

One of the highlights, to me, was seeing servant leadership on display.  It was cool to hear Meghan Sprager, new executive director of the BID, offer to help weed. Scrima, too, was working hard all day out in the sun.  Mayor Scrima commented that he would like to see this downtown clean-up be an annual event.  I kept personally thinking about what a difference we were making with every piece of garbage we were picking up, with every nasty weed we were taking out.

I had the opportunity also to have short conversations with those walking past to tell them what we were doing. For me, it was the ultimate next step. I already spend most of my time hanging out in downtown Waukesha, financially supporting the businesses, listening to the music during Friday night live, etc.  This is a way to take ownership and say, “this is my downtown.”

This is the downtown that I will hopefully some day live in.  This is the downtown where some day I hope to own a business.  I do care about it. I want people to be able to find the same enjoyment downtown Waukesha that I have and that starts  with days like yesterday.

As long as we are on the topic of downtown, I would like to extend an invitation, as I end this column, for you to attend the 3rd Annual Coffee, Music and Goodness concert  from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday in the walkway next to Coffee and Beans. Your attendance would make many of my musician friends and I very happy.