When the children spot a piece of garbage, they dart toward it with squeals of delight, grab it with fingers covered by heavy-duty kids’ gardening gloves, and whisk it into a garbage bag that might be half as tall as they are.
It is a Wednesday afternoon ritual that begins when several 6- to 12-year-olds gather at the Willow Street home of unofficial “street mom” Christine Pahkala. Picking up garbage on the street is an odious chore for some, but a purpose for them.
 Armed with brooms and garbage bags, from left, Allen Rico, Victor Romero and Ivan Ramirez help clean their Half Moon Bay neighborhood each Wednesday afternoon. |
“They get excited about it — they like to know who gets the most in their bag,” she laughed. Are there prizes involved? No. “They’re not thinking of anything else except to be helpers. “
This all began several weeks ago when Pahkala was cleaning up the street in front of her home. Playing nearby, Iswaldo Hernandez, 6, and siblings Kevin and Yulissa Ramirez, 11 and 6 respectively, wandered over to help.
“It just started from there,” Pahkala said.
That first week, the first three kids and Pahkala picked up four bags full of “all kinds of stuff:” bottles, oyster shells, cigarette butts, paper scraps, even discarded shoes. Fired up, the kids took on a nearby open lot, packing two 33-gallon garbage bags full before, exhausted, they called it quits.
Now, every Wednesday early afternoon, from three to nine kids don the gloves, hoist plastic grocery bags and shoulder light brooms, many cut down to their size.
They take off down the quiet street, with Pahkala right along with them, keeping an eagle eye out for their safety. Anything sharp or dangerous that they find, they leave to her to handle. When they reach the corner, she has them join hands and “stop, look and listen” before crossing together.
As they bag garbage and sweep the street clean, snippets of lively chatter emerge.
“Holy cow, what a good job!” exclaims Pahkala, counting up a haul of 15 cigarette butts.
“Look at all these beer tops,” says one boy critically.
“Ugh! A banana peel!” squeals a girl.
“Bud Lite,” says a boy, tossing a beer-bottle top in a plastic bag.
Less than 45 minutes later, Willow Street is clean as a whistle, and the proudly grinning kids are trooping off to Pahkala’s to play on her backyard trampoline or have a snack of fresh homemade popcorn.
They make trash collecting sound like a mission.
Allen Rico, 8, only joined the informal group a couple of weeks ago. But he’s serious about it.
“I do it because I want to help the environment and not make this neighborhood look yucky,” said Rico, who lives across the street from Pahkala. “I want it to look nice.”
Elizabeth Fletcher, 10, Pahkala’s stepdaughter, isn’t around as often as the others since she divides her time between Half Moon Bay and Millbrae. But when she heard about the effort, she jumped in. “I always watch ‘Animal Planet,’ care for animals and don’t like the environment to be dirty,” she said.
What does she think of littering?
“Gross! Why would people do it?” she said, making a face. “I don’t like dirty places.”
With that, she hoists her bag and scoots off on her “heelies,” little wheels in the heels of her shoes.
All that work is paying off. For one, the street is much cleaner.
“The more we do this, the less (garbage) we’re finding,” said Pahkala critically. “They’re making a difference. It’s really cool.”
And the kids are learning things.
“I never noticed so much litter in yards,” said Rico.
Pahkala tells about the time Hernandez, walking alone, came upon a piece of trash and stowed it in his pocket until he found a garbage can. “He was so proud of himself,” she said. “It meant the world to him. It’s the kids that make a difference. It’s the importance of taking pride in the community.”
The elders are taking notice.
“I notice parents taking more time to pick up garbage,” Pahkala said. “I’ve lived here five years and I’d never seen that. The children are teaching them a lesson.”
w