Paterson Rotary Club #70 To Launch “Pride In Paterson”
City Wide Cleanup Scheduled For Saturday, April 23rd

“Pride In Paterson” (PIP) had its beginning in 1993 through the initiative of Bonnie Sirower, then President of the Paterson Rotary Club #70. It was a citywide cleanup project in which many organizations, businesses and schools collaborated in providing the volunteer man/ womanpower, equipment, and supplies to clean up sidewalks, dispose of garbage, remove graffiti, plant bulbs and a wide variety of other beautification efforts at their places of business, parks and residential areas, with the objective of instilling pride in neighborhoods throughout the City.

The event was an annual one through 2001. However, the Rotary Project Director for the last couple of years or so, Frank Ambrosio, passed away and since then there has been a hiatus until this year when some “new blood” came on board the Rotary in the person of Mark Valli, V.P. N.J Community Development Corp. Mark decided to tackle the project and to take on the responsibility as Chairman. Valli already sees PIP as more than just an annual event and, “to do this more than once a year.”

The event was an annual one through 2001. However, the Rotary Project Director for the last couple of years or so, Frank Ambrosio, passed away and since then there has been a hiatus until this year when some “new blood” came on board the Rotary in the person of Mark Valli, V.P. N.J Community Development Corp. Mark decided to tackle the project and to take on the responsibility as Chairman. Valli already sees PIP as more than just an annual event and, “ to do this more than once a year.”

Valli continued, “ However, for now, the Rotary Club’s goal is to spend a day this year on Saturday, May 8, in community service, celebrating Paterson’s history, celebrating ‘Pride In Paterson’, putting our money where our mouth is, and getting out there with rakes, shovels and paint brushes, and beautifying whatever areas are identified for cleanup and beautification. The goal is to be a dispersed, citywide event that engages people all over the City to pick an area and to spend a couple of hours in cleaning it up. At the end of the day it is our hope we will have removed all kinds of trash, painted over graffiti, planted new flowers and shrubs and in general, to have demonstrated our pride in Paterson by making the City sparkle.”

Sheryl Adamoff, Treasurer of Airtron Technology and Co-Chairman of PIP, and a deeply committed an active Rotarian, picked up where Valli left off and said, “In the past, we have had extensive support for this project throughout the community from civic organizations, the Fire Dept., Police Dept., the school system, many non-profit organizations, the Housing Authority, Boy’s & Girls Club, St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center and many more that I can’t even name at this moment. In fact, when this project first started, a few years ago, there were over 106 identified groups and 3,400 volunteers that participated. We’re hoping it’s something they would like to see resurrected.”

It will be Valli’s job to identify and to reach out to all the businesses, organizations and individuals whose help and support are critical to the success of PIP. To begin, the Dept/ of Public Works will provide the PIP Committee with a list of those areas that they could use help on and of those that they regard as high priority. Including parks and other parcels of City land. “Otherwise”, said Valli, “we want to leave it up to the groups…for example if a business wants to spend time cleaning up the block in which they are located as a good will gesture to their neighbors, that would be an excellent idea. If a civic group is located across from a park and they want to adopt that park for the day, that would be fine. So, we want to leave it as flexible as possible, and we want to make sure that we remain as closely coordinated with what the City’s priorities are. We can accomplish both of those by first reaching out to the City and by reaching out to all the folks to sign up.”

Adamoff added, “We would also like people and businesses that may not have their own site or property that needs cleanup, to make a donation to sponsor sites that do. We will provide the volunteers who work to cleanup those sites with T shirts and a lunch from one of the fast food restaurants.” Valli jumped in, “There will be a central location where the volunteer workers will be able to pick up supplies like plastic bags, gloves, rakes, shovels and so on. We will encourage people to bring their own, as there won’t be enough of such equipment and supplies to give to everyone in the City. Eastside Park will be the central location for people to sign up.” Adamoff added, “ Sandy Levine of Levine Packaging Co. has agreed to provide whatever garbage bags are needed. That’s one of the wonderful things about Rotary…whenever you try to accomplish something, Rotarians are there to support you with there diversity of expertise and resources…this support is overwhelming!”

As mentioned earlier, Eastside Park will be the sign-in location and also the place where at day’s end, the volunteers will report back on their accomplishments e.g., how much garbage was picked how many bulbs and shrubs they planted, the extent to which they removed graffiti and so on. Also, it will be the area where we will have a barbecue and some festivities when the day’s work is finished, a fun ending to what will have been a pretty hard day.”

Valli was asked if the Sheriff will be asked to provide inmates to help with the work and he said that he would be reaching out to him. He has had experience on other projects where he has worked with Juvenile Justice groups and it has worked well. Adamoff recalled that in the past, PIP had worked with the Probation Dept. and that they will also be contacted to enlist their help once again.

Valli was asked to define Rotary’s role or motivaton in taking on this project and replied, “Rotary is taking the lead flank role in this event to re-instill pride in Paterson and it is our hope that we will be joined by many partners to help us. Rotary’s residual benefit from its lead role in this event is the recognition that it is an organization that is deeply involved in the community. It is the ultimate expression of citizenship to get involved in your community, defined as where you work, live or play…it’s basically the same thing, and the way to celebrate citizenship, to celebrate community, is to roll up your sleeves and to demonstrate your commitment.” Adamoff added, “Paterson is on the verge of a renaissance…so much is happening, and I think this is one way for those who live, work and have their businesses in Paterson to demonstrate that they are proud of the City.”

There are so many good things happening in the City, much of which gets little or no recognition in the press, Asked about media coverage of PIP, Valli said, “We will certainly reach out to the media and it is our hope that the media will have an interest in providing advance publicity of the event and in providing coverage on the day of this community- wide event. Everybody who reads ‘Chamber Happenings’, or is exposed to other media coverage of the event, and everybody that cares about the growth and impending renaissance of this City, can be a part of that process.”

The minimum cost of sponsorship of a site, depending upon the nature of the site, will be $50-$100. These contributions will be used to purchase supplies and materials.

"Service Above Self"