April 14, 2010

Mayor Paul Dyster & Joe Hickman Joe and Steve Toponak


On April 5, 2010, Modern Coporation's Sales Manager Joe Hickman and their Marketing & Creative Director Steve Toponak held a press conference with Mayor Paul Dyster to show off their new truck sign and announce Modern's single stream recycling. This means all Modern trucks will now look like the one below and the recycling truck driver will no longer have to sort the items he finds in our blue boxes as he puts them in the truck.

The Mayor announced the Beautify Niagara Clean Up on April 24th and said some nice words about the Niagara Beautification Commission and all the work they do for the City. He asked our Chair, Marge Gillies and me to say a few words. I took advantage of the situation and presented "grabbers" to Joe and the Mayor as a token symbol that the clean up is "about to begin". Chair Marge spoke about NBC and the partnership with Modern and the City.



The Mayor also announced that citywide bulk pick up by Modern will begin April 5th and continue to May 7th. This means that Modern will pick up more than one big item on your regular pick up day. So - start cleaning our that garage and basement and take your items to the curb or alley margin no sooner than 5:00 pm on the day before your pick up. Please follow the regular rules about bundling tree branches and try to keep your plastic bags in a covered container so animals and birds do nto rip open the bags and scatter the garbage throughout the neighborhood.

The we all had our photo taken at the new truck

Left to right - City Planner Tom DeSantis, NBC member Jane Schroeder, City Councilman Steve Fournier, Marge Gillies, City Administrator Donna Owens, Mayor Paul Dyster, Joe Hickman, Randy Umbriaco, Norma and Ron Anderluh of Niagara Street Business Association.

April 9, 2010

Join us at the Seneca Niagara Casino at 8:00 am for the Kick Off!

We held our annual work party to bundle the bags and gloves on April 1st and April 6th at the Niagara Falls Fire Department HQ building on Walnut Avenue. Our Fire Chief, William MacKay, lets us store all our supplies in that building and even lets us come and hold our work party in his conference room.

Linda Gibbons, Marge Gillies, Betsy Diachun, Kathy Russell, Joan Broderick, Norma, Chief MacKay, Roger Spurback, Doris Hampton and Mary Ann Rolland.

This is the April 1st work crew and it may look like we are standing around but as you can see below - it was steady work with not many breaks.

Each volunteer will receive three small kitchen size white bags and one large black bag with a pair of gloves and some latex gloves to wear inside to ward off any dampness. Some of the crew worked in teams and some worked alone. Roger and I were the suppliers - opening the boxes and putting the items on the table. Hard to keep up sometimes as these were eager beavers.

Here's Roger getting ready to "toss" a bundle of gloves to some waitng volunteers at the end of the table.

The second work day some of us came back. Must have been all the fun we had. There was a lot of laughter and Roger (the only male in the room on April 1st) was happy to see some men the next work day.

Linda Gibbons (back to camera), Roger Spurback, Rose Hovivian, Joan Broderick, Doris Hampton, Norma, Chief MacKay, Mary Ann Rolland,Tonja Crowell, Willene Jones, Michael Watson, David Cooper, Violet Fritts.

The white bags were donated by the Glad Bag Company through the Great American Clean Up and the black bags were supplied by the Niagara Falls Block Club Council and the Niagara Beautification Commission. The gloves were donated by Modern Corporation and the Niagara Falls Block Club Council and NBC. Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center donated the latex gloves we ask everyone to wear inside the work glove to protect the hands.

And last but not least, the Maid of the Mist Corp. donates their easily recognizable "blue rain poncho" just in case. No rain for a few years so we are confident the sun will shine on us this year also.

Have you signed up yet? Call ReNU Niagara at 205-0287 and join the fun and help Beautify Niagara at the same time. All of the volunteers and the suppliers deserve a big round of applause for their help in making our event a success.

April 1, 2010

Are you or your organization listed on the Niagara Gazette thermometer Ad which appeared in their April 1, 2010 edition? I know it is hard to read this but I just wanted to get your attention.


Our sincere thanks to the Niagara Gazette, one of our long time sponsors for this Beautify Niagara Citywide Cleanup campaign. Since 2006 they have been promoting this event on a regular basis during the month of April.

They publish the thermometer with the addition of the names of the volunteers and organizations participating on April 24th. They provide a crew to clean and beautify the area around their building at 310 Niagara Street. And, they also are one of the picnic sponsors and their publisher, Peter Mio, even comes out and cooks the hot dogs at our picnic following the clean up.

Thanks to all at the Gazette, especially Cheryl who has to put with me who sometimes goofs on the name spelling and asks for changes.
Please call 205-0287 to sign up and you can look for your presence on the thermometer as it reaches the top.

March 22, 2010

Let's introduce our first volunteers. They jumped the gun and signed up as soon as they heard the date.

The first one is our "first family", Mayor Paul Dyster "Friends and Family" group. Wife Becky sent an early email and signed up about twenty willing workers from their extended family and friends. I assigned them to work around Main Street and Whirlpool Street.

The first two photos are from Beautify Niagara 2008 where they worked on Pierce Avenue near Main Street. There is always plenty to do when the snow disappears and last year's leftovers are visible. The next photos arefrom 2009 where the Mayor joined workers from Main Street Business and Professional Association and they spruced up the area around the welcome sign at the entrance near Ontario Avenue ..

Beautify Niagara 2008 Beautify Niagara 2009

Government workers are good volunteers also. Suzanne Macri is always an eager worker and she brings her fellow office workers right along with her. This group is from Congresswoman Louise Slaughter's Niagara Falls District office on Pine Avenue. The usually join the AARP and Black Creek Block Club group and clean up around the Black Creek Park area. Unfortunately Suzi is camera shy and I never get a photo of her and her office crew. Maybe this year.

Not so with our Public Safety Team. Camera shy I mean. The Niagara Falls Police Department always comes out in force along with the Niagara Falls Fire Department. Here is Police Superintendent John Chella at the kickoff with Fire Chief William MacKay in 2008 and block club leaders Bob Miller and Roger Spurback. Then it's off to "working the streets" for the NF Police Department and our Chief.

Fire Chief MacKay is the Niagara Beautification Commission Honorary Chairman of the event. This has been the case since the clean up began back in the 1980s. The Fire Chief is the traditional leader and Chief MacKay has proven himself year after year as he pledges his firefighters to help at the kickoff each year and many individual firefighters bring their families along to clean an area.

He also opens his door at his Fire HQ Building to our work party where we bundle bags and gloves in preparation for distribution. We clutter his conference room with boxes of supplies and his firefighters take them to the kickoff area for distribution.

Chief MacKay and Mayor Paul Dyster welcome and thank everyone who turns out to help Beautify Niagara.

More later....

March 6, 2010

March 6, 2010

SPONSOR HIGHLIGHT

Modern Corporation is another of our year-after-year loyal sponsors. Not only do they provide pick up of our collected trash bags on our chosen Saturday workday, but they always provide some gloves for our volunteers as well.

In 2008, Modern offered to change the logo on the side of some of their trucks working in Niagara Falls to depict the Beautify Niagara logo.

Pretty Neat - right! Look for that truck in YOUR neighborhood and say
"Thanks -Modern" for supporting Beautify Niagara.....

March 2, 2010

I promised to highlight our sponsors and will start with the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel. They have sponsored and hosted our "kickoff breakfast" at their location downtown "under the arch" on Fourth Street since 2006.
This is where our volunteers meet and pick up their bags and gloves and enjoy a continental breakfast to meet up with their "clean team" and get ready to head out to their chosen spot.

It is usually dark when I arrive on Beautify Niagara day to start the set up and distribution process but the Seneca staff led by Events Coordinator Karen Nordaby are already there with tables and chairs arranged for us and coffee and pastries ready for the 8:00 event.

They provide a podium and microphone so we can get pep talks from Mayor Paul Dyster and our Honorary Chairman, Fire Chief William MacKay.
They also allow the Niagara Falls Fire Department to park a fire truck at the curb in front of the entrance "under the arch" and we all line up for a photo opportunity. Then we head off to our clean up chores in various parts of the City.

The Seneca employees also send a volunteer crew out to do their bit to Beautify Niagara. Thanks to all of you for your wonderful coopertion.

Next you will see our first volunteers. Have you signed up yet?

March 1, 2010

March 1, 2010

Hi! It's time to sign up again for Beautify Niagara, the Niagara Falls citywide clean up campaign organized by the Niagara Beautification Commission. We have many sponsors which I will highlight as we move toward our target date of
APRIL 24, 2010.

You can follow the progress on this site at any time and I hope you will contribute comments now and then to make it more interesting.

I will try to add photos from previous years as we go along and list some volunteer information. (time permitting).

You can sign up to volunteer yourself or your organization by calling ReNUNiagara (our good friends at Niagara University) at 205-0287. They will take your information over the phone and pass this along to me. Your name or the name of your organization will be included in the "thermometer ad" in the local Niagara Gazette. Sign up today and be in the first ad.

Remember - check this blog often to keep "in the know"....
beautifyniagaranews.blogspot.com

Norma Higgs