Start off the new year with a clean slate when you lend a helping hand to People Helping People’s Annual Kass Circle Clean-Up on Saturday, January 15th from 8 am – 11 am located at 1396 Kass Circle, Spring Hill.
This event is conducted in honor of and in conjunction with January’s Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, marking the 27th anniversary of the day of service that celebrates the Civil Rights leader’s life and legacy. Observed each year on the third Monday in January as “A day on, not a day off,” MLK Day is the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service. This is a prime opportunity for all Americans to volunteer towards the goal of improving and enhancing their community. “PHP sponsors this annual clean up as a way to clear the neighborhood of unwanted trash, which sometimes includes garbage, mattresses, shopping carts, tarps, you name it! We even found part of a car one year. We encourage everyone to help, including children providing there is adult supervision. If you can’t come to our event, grab a bag and walk around your own neighborhood and fill it with trash!” said Becky Burton, Executive Director of People Helping People.
Doug Brainard, President of People Helping People, says that the Kass Circle Clean-Up has become a Hernando tradition itself. “A group of concerned citizens, living in the Kass Circle area, decided over 15 years ago to start a cleanup in the Kass Circle area. A few years later the group decided upon Saturday prior to MLK National Day of Service as an appropriate date for an annual neighborhood cleanup,” he explained. “A quote from my 2015 letter to the Hernando County Planning Department read, “We have observed the chronic problems associated with litter and dumping of debris in our area. This cleanup event will raise awareness regarding urban runoff pollution issues and help residents make the connection to the quality of their drinking water source and to the health of Weeki Wachee Springs.”
Brainard says that the need for the clean-up has not changed. “The situation has not changed much. The number of volunteers has increased to nearly 50 people who comb the streets around Kass Circle for trash and debris. People Helping People’s HELP Center, located at 1396 Kass Circle serves as a meeting point to help coordinate the neighborhood event. Usually Republic Services donates a large dumpster and Hernando County waives the dumping fees for this cleanup event,” he explained.
The clean-up is truly and inherently a team effort. “Often neighborhood businesses donate water, coffee and donuts, gloves and trash bags,” said Brainard. “Each year cleanup volunteers continue to fill the dumpster with trash from along the streets between Pinehurst and Deltona in the Kass Circle neighborhood. In 2022, the event is scheduled for Saturday, January 15th.”
Anyone interested in helping should sign in at the PHP Help Center, 1396 Kass Circle, Spring Hill, between 8 am – 8:30 am on the 15th.
“Please bring gloves if you have them. We’ll provide trash bags, water, coffee and snacks. We should be done by noon,” said Burton. And the results of this day’s service will last far longer.
