Here’s an article that was originally posted on musegreen.com. The PPF were featured due to our fabulous community spirit and volunteer work!! Here goes…

Whenever I get the chance, I love to get the word out about great people doing great things for the community. It’s all part of who we are, our place in society and on this planet.

I’m also very lucky as I get to live in a great part of the world. Rolling hillsides, just a short hop to the mountains or the ocean (whatever tickles your fancy), good schools and, apart from the abundance of highly manicured lawns (which, for some reason, irritate me somewhat), it’s just great place to be.

However, just like any other conurbation, it has it’s issues. One such issue is littering, where people discard anything and everything ranging from boxes and paper products, computer equipment and tv sets, to syringes and half-empty bottles of Jack Daniels.

One such spot was found in full bloom along a popular stretch of roadside in Lafayette, California. An otherwise pristine part of the world was becoming tainted with junk and general disrespect.

So, tired of looking at it day after day, Michael Inserra, a resident of Lafayette, decided to get up and do something about it.

The first port of call on things like this is the local county Public Works department. In this particular case they were very responsive and called back within 24 hours saying that they would send somebody out to clean up the mess within a few days.

But, after several weeks had passed it was revealed that, due to budget cuts, there was simply nobody available to deal with the mess. The Juvenile Hall program had been cut, the adopt a highway was gone too and it would likely be months before anything would get done, if at all. Oh, and don’t even think about doing it yourself…

So enter (stage left), Ms. Leslie Noel. Leslie is founder of the Peter Pan Foundation – a truly wonderful Bay Area organisation dedicated to using theater arts, fund raising, and community service to teach teens, children, and young adults in the community about the importance of philanthropy. Along with all the fund raising they do for organisations such as the Oakland Children’s Hospital, the PPF’s Youth Council (aka the BAMM Squad!) also make it their mission to plan a community event each month; something to give back to the community and the environment.

So, on a hot & sticky Sunday afternoon in October, 25+ kids, teens and adults set out on a big clean-up mission. Armed with a dumpster they had hired themselves, reflective jackets and some protective clothing, they went out in force. What is remarkable is that, in just one hour, they had collected over 20 bags of trash, which included the usual paper products and cans you typically find, but also rat traps (with the rats still inside), and some bigger items such as tv’s and full sized pieces of sheet metal.

So, while it’s a shame that our own behaviour means that we need to clean up after ourselves in this way, and that budget cuts have taken their toll on our local government to the point where basic services cannot be supported, it is refreshing to know that there is still enough community spirit out there to go around.

I’m sure the residents of this East Bay city are very grateful for the volunteer effort and that they agree with Mr. Inserra when he says, “It was just the right thing to do”.