2011 Intergenerational Fall Clean-Up

3rd Annual Intergenerational Fall Clean-Up

The award-winning 3rd Annual Intergenerational Fall Clean-Up collaboration between the Oneida County Youth Bureau, the Oneida County Office for the Aging and Continuing Care, Oneida County colleges, school districts, and youth organizations, once again, exceeded all expectations delivering general yard clean-up services to senior citizens county-wide. The number of youth volunteers and senior citizens served has increased every year and this fall 560 youth volunteers cleaned 115 senior citizens' yards!

“The success of our annual Intergenerational Spring and Fall Clean-Ups is a direct result of our dedicated, committed, and hard-working volunteers,” County Executive Anthony J. Picente, Jr. said. Picente added “Annually, Oneida County senior citizens, who no longer can physically do the work or financially afford to have the work done for them, benefit tremendously from their volunteer efforts. These youth volunteers continue to remind us that there is good in our world, in our youth and Oneida County is a special place to live.”

The 560 remarkable youth volunteers representing 39 entities were from the following colleges, school districts and youth organizations; Utica College’s Black Student Union, Physical Therapist Society, Circle K Club, Theta Phi Alpha Sorority, GNT-101 Introduction to Aging students and Health Studies Society, Mohawk Valley Community College’s Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, Welders Among Communities, Latino Student Union and Student Congress, Hamilton College’s Women’s Basketball Team, Proctor High School’s Key Club, Young Scholars, Youth Construction Initiative Program and Junior ROTC Program, Rome Free Academy’s Junior ROTC Program, Oneida Youth, Inc., Slavic Pentecostal Youth Group, Utica Municipal Housing Authority, Utica Safe Schools/Healthy Students Underground Café, Boy Scouts from Crew 112/Troop 29, Troop 14, Troop 21 and Troop 502, Whitesboro Central High School’s International Club, Notre Dame High School’s Boy’s Basketball Team and National Honor Society, New Hartford Central High School’s Boy’s Varsity Cross Country Team and Girl’s Varsity Field Hockey Team, YMCA of the Greater Tri-Valley’s Teen Leaders Program, The House of the Good Shepherd, Remsen Central High School’s Government Class, Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Central High School’s Interact Club and National Honor Society, Holland Patent Central High School’s Girl’s Cross Country Team and National Honor Society, Sauquoit Valley Central High School’s National Honor Society, Compeer of the Mohawk Valley and 123 volunteers representing Camden Central High School Athletics!

“I have been honored and extremely fortunate to have met and worked with these incredible young men and women,” Youth Bureau Director Bob Roth said. “I’m constantly amazed at their willingness to help, their wonderful, upbeat attitudes, and their work ethic,” Roth added.

The 4th Annual Intergenerational Spring Clean-Up is scheduled for Saturday, April 28th, and Sunday, April 29th, 2012, and the 4th Annual Intergenerational Fall Clean-Up is scheduled for Saturday, October 20th, and Sunday, October 21st, 2012.

Any youth organization interested in volunteering should contact Tom Giruzzi at the Oneida County Youth Bureau by phone at (315) 798-5027 or via e-mail at tgiruzzi@ocgov.net. Any interested senior citizen that would want their yard cleaned should contact the Oneida County Office for the Aging and Continuing Care by phone at (315) 798-5456.

The Oneida County Youth Bureau and the Oneida County Office for the Aging and Continuing Care’s Annual Intergenerational Spring and Fall Clean-Ups has been named an award winner in the Albany Guardian Society 2010 Great Ideas in Aging Contest. The clean-ups won the award in the community-based programs category.