Early Morning Litter Vigilantes Keeping Mississippi Ave Clean For Decades
Early on Sunday mornings, while most of us are sleeping, Dayrol Griffin and Marlene Olveda are picking up litter on Mississippi Avenue. They have been doing this for you and our businesses for decades. Who are they and how did we get so lucky to have them?
Dayrol and Marlene shown above. Photo credit: Zack Stack.
Photo from Marlene O. of treasures she’s found over the years picking up trash.
“You get amazing feelings when you give back to your community. ”
The BNA asked them a few questions. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
BNA: How long have you been doing cleanups around the neighborhood and what got you started?
MO: Dayrol and I have been going out around our respective blocks a long time…at least 20 years.
DG: Yes, way before all the new garbage cans, even before the food carts came in. Since the carts came, there is a lot more garbage on the streets and sidewalks.
MO: I’ve lived here 22 years.
DG: I’ve lived here 58 years in the same house, born and raised!
MO: I got involved in environmental stuff way back in the 80s. I was a social studies teacher on Orcas Island where I taught Contemporary World Problems. I had friends who worked for the department of ecology in Washington State who helped develop the “Away With Waste” curriculum, which was a K-12 cross curriculum playbook of all kinds of things you can do about the environment and waste. I would pull some lessons from that when I taught. I did a 9-week unit on garbage and ocean pollution, air pollution and all kinds of things and at the end of the 9 weeks I asked my students if they enjoyed it. [students] “Yes, very much.” [M.O.] “How do you feel about it? [students] “We all just want to kill ourselves cause it’s so depressing” So I asked, “Well, what can we do? We live on an island? Let’s start a recycling program” And we did! We started a whole school recycling program. Our very first year we won a Terry Husseman Award for the recycling program. That was back in 1990. The industrial Arts department made can crushers and worm boxes, they put in a community garden, they planted trees. We’d go with the elementary school kids down to the beach 3 blocks away from the school and clean up all the trash that had washed up and then tell NOAA what had come up on the beach.
BNA: Is that program still going?
MO: It is! It’s expanded since then. They have a huge community garden down by the elementary school where they’ve built an outdoor pizza oven and they have picnic tables, there are murals. The whole thing is still going on and this is 33 years ago. So I got started there.
DG: I’ve done many SOLVE beach cleanups, going with a group of people from work, even in the neighborhood here, there’s been some recent SOLVE cleanups up on Albina and Alberta and Peninsula Park in the last couple months.
MO: Mississippi Pizza has been there 20+ years. Every morning there is someone out there cleaning up their sidewalk and outdoor seating area. And Por Que No and others do an excellent job. Some of the businesses aren’t great at keeping their outdoor areas clean. It would be great if all the restaurants, bars, brew pubs, concert venues would realize that their patrons still smoke. Even if they’re not smoking inside, they’re smoking outside and without ashtrays, they are tossing their cigarettes on the ground. It’s unsightly and toxic. It’s the number one piece of litter we find, we pick up 100s off Mississippi Ave every single Sunday morning.
BNA: What do you love about the Boise neighborhood?
MO: I love that I can do so much here and don't have to drive! And I love my neighbors, some I've known since we moved here 22 years ago.
DG: I love being within walking distance to so many wonderful businesses which the majority are small businesses. We are very conveniently located to mass transit and a quick drive into Downtown Portland or across the bridge to Vancouver, WA.
BNA: Do you have anything to say about Adopt One Block?
DG: I think Adopt One Block has been tailored to all age groups. For example, You can pick a short block for a very young person and that’s all you’re responsible for. The bottom line is, anytime you get out in your community and volunteer, be it a cleanup, Habitat for Humanity, a food bank, a shelter, any of those kinds of things, you get amazing feelings when you give back to your community. If we really really promoted that more, people would have a lot more respect for other people.
MO: I can’t top that! That was perfect.
Inspired by Dayrol and Marlene? Here are ways you can help!
You can become a Block Ambassador with Adopt One Block too! Sign up, pick a block, get free supplies and get started keeping your block tidy.
Join the Boise-Eliot SOLVE Cleanup event on June 3rd from 10-Noon or other SOLVE events happening throughout the city all year.
Or join the BNA on 3rd Saturdays starting at Unthank Park, 9am to pick a street or alley to clean up with neighbors.
Thank you Dayrol and Marlene and everyone in our neighborhood who regularly pick up trash to make our community a better place to live!