April 12th, 2022

Long Branch Cleanups Offer Occasion to Socialize

On Friday evening, March 18, a group of Long Branch residents and small business owners came together for a clean up on Flower Ave.

The work started inside the Flower Avenue Urban Park, and quickly expanded to include adjacent sidewalks, parking lots, the entryway to Giant Foods, and portions of Flower Avenue itself.

Volunteers included adults, teens and young children. Ada Villatoro (El Golfo) and Eddy Campos (Veronica’s Café) also pitched in.

During the event, which lasted from 5 p.m. until 6 p.m., the fifteen hard-working volunteers filled 20 large trash bags with sundry litter and dead leaves. After depositing the bags at the park entrance for pickup by the County, several of the adult volunteers headed over to El Golfo Restaurant’s outdoor streetery for drinks and snacks — courtesy of MHP.

Unlike downtown Silver Spring, there are no paid staff in Long Branch responsible for regular maintenance activities, so volunteer cleanups like these fill an important gap in services while also helping to build community.

The March event was the first in a series of monthly Long Branch cleanups that will focus, over time, on different sections of commercial Long Branch.

The cleanups, it is hoped, will also serve to get the Long Branch Social Club tradition back on its feet. Prior to the pandemic, the Social Club had been a monthly informal get-together for drinks and conversation without any agenda.

The post-cleanup gathering on March 18 generated lots of conversation, laughter and conviviality.

Want to join in? Send a note to Paul or Amee at MHP (pgrenier@mhpartners.org or abearne@mhpartners.org) to get on the contact list for future cleanups.