Students clean Oakland despite cold, future litterers

Sarah Bingler, a sophomore, would have stayed in bed Saturday morning if she hadn’t had… Sarah Bingler, a sophomore, would have stayed in bed Saturday morning if she hadn’t had something important to do for the Oakland community.

She was one of the few people on the rain-soaked streets of Oakland at 9 a.m. Saturday for Pitt Project Oakland.

“We come and take, and make [Oakland] dirty, and then leave for the summer,” Bingler said.

This year, Bingler wanted to make a difference.

Despite the rain, Bingler decided to take part, for the first time, in Pitt Project Oakland.

Formerly know as the Pittsburgh Project, the ninth annual Pitt Project Oakland enlisted members of the Oakland community to walk through the streets of North, South and Central Oakland picking up trash. Volunteers were divided into groups and assigned areas to clean up between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Bingler liked the idea of “actually physically cleaning up” to give back to Oakland.

Though Bingler realized that Fall Fest and Saturday night parties might cause litter to build up again, literally overnight, she said, “It would be worse if we didn’t take action now.”

And it may raise awareness among students and make them think twice before throwing a paper cup on the street, she said.

Another volunteer was “roped” into participating by a friend.

“I’m going to kill him,” joked the volunteer, Darin Roodman, wearing a big black coat to ward off the bitter coldness of the morning.

But in a more serious mood, he said Pitt Project Oakland was an important event. Even though he lives in Shadyside, Roodman spends most of his time in Oakland.

“If I don’t help it out, who’s going to?” he said, biting into a complimentary bagel provided by the event’s planners.

Like Bingler, Roodman said he wouldn’t have left his apartment if it had been any other rainy, Saturday morning.

As a high school student in San Antonio, Texas, Roodman performed similar clean-up volunteer projects for his community.

“It was never this cruddy out,” he said. “But it’s worth doing.”

In the beginning, only a small crowd of about twenty people gathered on the patio behind Posvar Hall, the meeting place for Pitt Project Oakland.

But by 9:30 a.m., the patio was packed with hoodie-wearing students, crowding under the awning to seek refuge from the rain. Weaving through the crowd became more difficult than crossing Bigelow Boulevard during lunchtime traffic.

Sipping hot drinks from insulated cups – which were, of course, discarded in nearby trashcans – and rocking to the music of 50 Cent playing in the background, the students created a dim roar as they made conversation with friends and strangers alike.

“Every time I turn around, crowds are coming in,” said Kelly Hoffman, community organizer of the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation, which helped Student Volunteer Outreach organize Pitt Project Oakland.

“I’m really happy we’re working with Pitt,” Hoffman said.

“Sometimes students get a bad reputation,” she said, adding that it’s good for homeowners to see students helping the community.

In an effort to keep students involved in the community, OPDC is currently “kicking off” an initiative called “Keep it Clean, Oakland.”

As the name suggests, OPDC wants to develop programs to clean up Oakland year-round, and not just once a year, as Pitt Project Oakland does.

One such program is the “Adopt a Block” project, in which groups can “adopt” streets in Oakland to clean once a month.

So far only fraternities and one sorority have adopted streets, but any group can adopt a street. Atwood and Semple streets and Oakland and Meyran avenues have all been adopted.

At first, Katelyn Miller, the Student Volunteer Outreach coordinator for volunteer service projects, was concerned when she found out Pitt Project Oakland was on the same day as Fall Fest. She said she thought potential volunteers might go to Fall Fest instead, but then she reasoned that people could do both.

“I’m very pleased all of these people showed up,” Miller said, adding that she hoped Pitt Project Oakland would get students excited about other community service events.

Then, with an eager look, the volunteers descended the steps of Posvar Hall, trash bags in hands and ready to clean up Oakland.