Mission Hills Neighborhood Council hosted a successful Spring Clean Up of the Pacoima Spreading Grounds Pathway on Saturday, April 27, 2019. We partnered with Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, Valle Vida and the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters.

Over 40 people of all ages met at Devonwood Park bright and early and wearing our neon green MHNC Beautification volunteer tee shirts gathered work tools and moved out to clear trash and brush from along the Devonshire pathway. Some came as early at 7:30am to get started and worked until well after 11:30.

MHNC Beautification and Culture Chair Niranjala Tillakaratne especially wants to thank:

• All the volunteers who worked very hard to make our neighborhood beautiful, especially the youth who participated in the event. I appreciate and welcome the volunteers who participated for the first time and value the dedication of volunteers who keep coming back to help.
• Councilwoman Monica Rodrigeuz and Juan Solario for co-sponsoring and attending the event and providing cleanup tools and a dumpster.
• Neighbors near Pacoima Spreading Grounds and other stakeholders who supplied mill brooms, push brooms, dustpans, shears, shovels, lawn mower, weed whacker, and gardening gloves.
• The members of the MHNC Beautification committee, especially Rodney and Nelly Gonzalez, Karen Martin, Lokubanda Tillakaratne who attended and helped in organizing the event.
• Joe Fuchs and Southern California Carpenters Association for attending and taking care of cleaning up of Mission Hills streets and picking up the scores of trash bags generated during the cleanup event at different sites into the dumpster parked on the Mission Hills Christian Church.
• MHNC President David Kritzer who attended with his son and worked hard during the cleanup (three MHNC Board Members Joe Fuchs, Niranjala, and Lokubanda Tillakaratne attended the cleanup).
• MHNC Board Member Dean Anderson for his help in ordering Subway sandwich platters from the Mission Hills Subway on Devonshire St and the staff at Subway. They were very helpful, and individually wrapped 90 sandwiches which usually comes unwrapped on platters. The volunteers enjoyed the sandwiches after their hard work. We also shared about 15 sandwiches with the volunteers who were working on the community garden project at the church.
• Rodney and Nelly Gonzalez for printing 100 copies of the colorful flyers to advertise the event, and Mihiri Tillakaratne for taking care of the outreach table and refreshments, and distributing cleanup flyers to the community and and posting them on the light poles days before the events.
• Wendy Moore, Yolie Anguiano and Next Door for advertising the cleanup event through the email blasts, and posting on the websites.