Keeping the U-District Beautiful
Volunteers from the FS Day of Service partner with SDOT employees to make the Ave’s tree beds level with the sidewalks, cleaning up the Ave and improving a tripping hazard. The U-District Partnership highlighted the Day of Service as one of their main reasons for honoring Facilities Services with the award.
On March 29, 2016 at its annual awards ceremony, the U-District Partnership recognized UW Facilities Services with its Keep the U-District Beautiful award.
The partnership chose Facilities Services for the award because of its work on last year’s FS Day of Service, and for record-breaking years of SCRAM, the student move-out donation program, and the U-District Cleanup.
U-District Partnership CEO Elizabeth McCoury and Don Schulze, winner of last year’s Keep the U-District Beautiful honors, presented the award to leadership from Facilities Services.
In 2015, because of the SCRAM program, the University of Washington donated 28.7 tons of reusable items to local charities and non-profit organizations, a 60 percent increase from 17.9 tons in 2014. This includes 13.8 tons of clothing and household goods donated to Northwest Center, and 7.9 tons of food donated to the U-District Food Bank.
“Last year’s SCRAM event was truly a remarkable one for our organization,” said Kalyn Brady, marketing and outreach coordinator of Northwest Center. “With the help of University of Washington students, we are able to provide early intervention, inclusive early childhood education, teen programs and after school programs for children and supported employment, job training and placement for adults.”
Held during popular student move-in and move-out times, the Husky Neighborhood Cleanup encourages students living in the U-District area north of Northeast 45th Street to leave their unwanted items at our collection site for free disposal. In an effort to help prevent illegal dumping, and keep surrounding campus neighborhoods clean. Trucks from Goodwill, UW Recycling and Waste Management gather for three days near Greek Row in order to provide free removal services for students.
In 2015, the Husky Neighborhood Cleanup collected 3.03 tons of garbage, 1.11 tons of recycling and 5.70 tons of donations, for a total of 9.84 tons of material collected, keeping that material off of the streets of the University District.
And finally, during the first of what will become an annual event, more than 100 Facilities Services employees donated three hours of their time on a wet and windy Saturday morning to partner with the U-District Partnership and clean up University Way. Employees washed storefronts, removed stickers from poles and bus stops, picked up garbage, swept sidewalks, and even partnered with SDOT to improve gravel beds for the Ave’s trees, mitigating a tripping hazard.
From left, UW Recycling Assistant Director Emily Newcomer, UW Recycling Program Coordinator Jessica Lisiewski, Emergency Management Director Steve Charvat, Training Manager MaryJo Blahna, Emergency Management’s Plans and Training Manager Siri McLean, last year’s award winner Don Schulze, Building Services Director Gene Woodard and FS Chief of Staff LuAnn Stokke.
