Arizona Republic
NEWS BY YOU
Volunteers labor to spruce up Scottsdale’s ‘southern gateway’
Submitted by Dana Close, a 25-year resident of southern Scottsdale and a founding member of the Scottsdale Gateway Alliance.
The Scottsdale Gateway Alliance launched its inaugural cleanup of Mc-Dowell Road on the morning of Nov. 9, an event that not only captured the enthusiasm of volunteers and local businesses, but also collected a dumpster’s worth of trash along the corridor.
Donning vibrant green vests and work gloves, about 150 volunteers split up into eight teams, fanning out along McDowell Road near 77th Street. Coronado High School cheerleaders got the morning rolling with an impromptu cheer: “Let’s Go S-G-A … Let’s Clean Up McDowell Road.”
The south Scottsdale team of volunteers included longtime residents, business owners, honor students, Boys & Girls Clubs members and Scouting organizations. Even Scottsdale Vice Mayor Virginia Korte and firefighters from Station 601 flexed their muscles to help clean up and show their commitment to our city’s “Southern Gateway.”
The cleanup project was just one part of SGA’s objective to unite businesses, property owners and residents around the common goal of helping breathe economic life into McDowell Road and southern Scottsdale.
SGA is on the ground making things happen. Our wheels are churning and momentum is building literally every week. Our organization is working hard to make the Southern Scottsdale Gateway Corridor the next great destination in the Valley.
The event could not have been successful without the generous support from businesses and organizations that donated their time, talent, equipment and supplies.
The organizations included Scottsdale Healthcare, Salt River Project, Goodwill Industries, Lowe’s, Peter Piper Pizza, Dunn Transportation (“Ollie the Trolley”), Scottsdale Firefighters Association, Duke’s Sports Bar, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Denny’s, Paul’s Ace Hardware and Fresh & Easy.
The groups collected enough trash to fill a dumpster, from cigarette butts to plastic bags and sandwich wrappers to weeds. Volunteers even wiped down and painted city signs, benches and magazine racks.
For the past several months, SGA has been meeting with neighborhood residents, groups, businesses and city officials to explore economic-development opportunities. SGA has also kick-started conversations with the city about landscaping enhancements along key parts of McDowell Road.
Stay tuned for some exciting plans, as well as additional SGA-sponsored events that will focus on revitalizing southern Scottsdale.