Volunteers seek to clean up trash, erase graffiti in Village

By Kevin Lee
Daily Bruin Contributor

Fraternities and Westwood residents will team up Sunday to pick
up trash and erase graffiti during Operation Clean Sweep, an event
organized by the North Village Improvement Committee and the UCLA
Center for Student Programming.

Volunteers, using equipment provided by the city, will clean the
apartment area between Gayley and Veteran avenues.

“Operation Clean Sweep presents Westwood residents with a
great opportunity to work and build relationships with
fraternities,” said Shelley Taylor of the NVIC.

“The NVIC … is committed to eradicating graffiti in our
neighborhood,” Taylor added.

According to Scott Carter of the Center for Student Programming,
one reason why he and Taylor decided to have an OCS event toward
the end of the school year is because many students dispose of
their trash in preparation to move out of their apartments around
this time.

Each fraternity in IFC is required to provide 10 percent of its
membership to participate in the cleanup.

According to Carter, approximately 200 people are expected to
participate in the event.

The IFC won a community service award at the Western Regional
Greek Conference last year for their efforts during the first
cleanup event fall quarter.

The IFC fraternities will post flyers on apartments throughout
Westwood seeking non-fraternity volunteers.

Taylor said she would like to have sorority members to
participate in OCS.

OCS is a Los Angeles-wide program in which the city provides
equipment to neighborhoods subject to excessive graffiti and
trash.

The city provides items such as rakes, masks and
graffiti-removing solvents, as well as a large compacting truck
capable of taking in whole sofas.

Much of the graffiti is in the form of stickers, such as bumper
stickers, or advertisements, Taylor said.

In addition to removing stickers and grafitti, participants will
also trim hedges and pull weeds.

Taylor says she would like to have an OCS about three times a
year.

“Many of the students living in Westwood are only here
temporarily for school, and don’t really have a chance to get
involved with their community,” Taylor said. “Operation
Clean Sweep gives them a chance to do so.”

During the first OCS event last November, a crew of 75
volunteers picked up 5.5 tons of trash between Gayley and Veteran
Avenues.

“This time with so many people, we could very well finish
within two hours,” Carter said.

An orientation meeting for the event will be held at 9:30 a.m.
at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house on Gayley Avenue.

“We’re all pretty excited about participating in
Operation Clean Sweep,” said Cameron Kalunian, Community
Service chair for the Interfraternity Council.