COMMUNITY TEAMWORK
Volunteers enjoy South Side cleanup effort
On a typical April weekend in the past, Candace “Chainsaw” Moser would be whirling around a roller derby track, smashing into competitors. But with the Ohio Roller Derby league now in its second season of hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Moser instead on Saturday was walking along S. 17th Street on the South Side, picking up cigarette butts and candy wrappers.
Along with her husband, Drew Stafford, and daughter Ember Stafford, 12, Moser was among about a half-dozen of her roller derby teammates who joined Saturday’s cleanup, organized by the nonprofit volunteer group Green Columbus as part of its Earth Day Columbus effort.
“We came out to be together (as teammates), since we can’t play roller derby right now,” said Moser, of Gahanna. “We can’t wait to get back, but we’re finding good things to do in the meantime.”
All told, about 15 people gathered for the cleanup, which began at the Community Grounds coffee shop on Parsons Avenue. Green Columbus
had scheduled several other cleanup events around the city on Saturday, as well.
Shop co-owner Tara Mullinscosme was the event leader. She welcomed the group, passed out equipment and gave them directions. She said she was pleased with the turnout.
“One thing that has been nice about the pandemic is when we are able to have safe ways to give back, we’re getting more people for service-oriented events than we’ve ever gotten before,” said Mullinscosme, of the South Side.
The group then headed through the nearby streets: East on Deshler, past South High School, then up 17th to Siebert Ave.
On a sunny day with temperatures in the low 70s, they worked to the sounds of the clicking trash pickers and the swishing black trash bags.
One of the participants, Doug Hermanson, of Columbus' Harrison West neighborhood, is an event leader for Columbus Gives Back, a volunteer group that helped publicize the cleanup.
“I like the outdoor events,” said Hermanson, who is an economist. “I sit at a desk all day, pointing and clicking, so picking up trash or planting flowers is something I'm actually totally OK with, especially when the weather is nice.
“And all for a good cause, which makes it all the more rewarding.”
At the corner of 17th and Siebert, the group spent some time working at a pocket park there, owned by Mullinscosme and her husband, Joel Cosme.
They bought the 0.1-acre plot in 2014 and were married there, Mullinscosme said. Seven years later, when neighbors of theirs were looking for a wedding venue, Mullins-cosme offered them the chance to be the second couple married there.
So on Saturday, Christina Yonley and Domonique Callion were applying gray paint to a wooden board and post that would bear the park's name: Community Grounds (Mullins-cosme said they named the park before the coffee shop).
Yonley and Callion, both of the South Side, will be married on May 4 (“Star Wars fan,” Yonley said, grinning and gesturing to Callion).
The Moser/stafford family said they are well-versed in cleanups, participating in at least one a year, Drew Stafford said. He estimated that Ember has done about 12 cleanups.
“We'll be at the Kroger parking lot, and if she sees something on the ground, she'll pick it up and throw it in the trash can on the way in (to the store),” he said. “It's good to see that habit is ingrained already.”
With a degraded plastic wrapper in hand, Moser said, “These things are well on their way to becoming microplastics. It doesn't hurt to pick it up wherever you see it. It's in our drinking water, it's in the soil that we're growing plants in, it's everywhere. So why not try to make a dent?” kgordon@dispatch.com @kgdispatch