Last Saturday, August 18, fourteen Missionary members from the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints converged on Congress Street to join Dr.G for a community service project to kick-off the new year.
When this combined effort was first discussed in December, the leaders of the missionary group were planning their slate of community service projects for 2025, and contacted Dr.G in order to better plug-in to the community of Colton. Sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ, the Missionaries, all young adults, are required to participate in community service during their missionary training. Normally that requirement is eighteen months for gals (Sisters), and two years for the guys (Elders).
Upon the initial discussion, plans were set to start the new year with a project that would genuinely help the community. A great place to start was a trash clean-up project, and DrG knew just the place – The long corridor along Congress and Fogg Street, including the “big corner.”
Characteristically known as a busy thoroughfare, this stretch of undeveloped property is not only a truck route, but is a common path of travel where trash accumulates and illegal dumping unfortunately occurs. As a result, the thoroughfare takes on blight, and needs cleaning up periodically. This is where CITYTALK w/DrG comes into the picture, and every few months he plans a large-scale trash cleaning project on a given Saturday, where often times a local community group or church group will want to participate.
The Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints was an excellent group to take on the task of helping to clean up the blighted area. This enthusiastic group of young missionaries reported for duty at 9:00am, and within an hour and one-half, cleaned up a huge part of the blight (trash, debris, etc.) making this corridor a noticeably better place. “That’s a big help,” said resident Cynthia Velasquez, an LDS Church member who came to provide water and cookies for the hard-working volunteers.
Once the project was finished, the final tally was 8 tires, 4 mattresses, a pile of wood pieces, branches, small pieces of junk, several various-sized boxes, and about 35 bags of trash. “This was a great opportunity for us,’ said missionary spokesperson Sister Robinson, who continued, “We appreciate the opportunity to help the community.”
Over the last ten years, Dr.G has been leading a number of clean-up efforts throughout the downtown area, south Colton, and La Loma Hills. From time to time various community groups such as the Missionaries have joined in to offer some assistance in picking up trash, and in some cases, cleaning up areas that have experienced dumping of bulk items. Once completed, the clean-up project is a great success and makes the area noticeably better. As a result, everyone wins – the area is clean, the participants enjoy service to the community, travelers see a nice corridor, and nearby residents enjoy a welcoming neighborhood. This was a great community effort and much appreciation goes to the young missionaries for volunteering their labor and time.
For more information about CITY TALK, Council of Churches, sermon topics, Bible briefs, Youth Council, various community groups, Colton history, the trash clean-up project, the G-Team, prayer list, history briefs, Veteran Spotlight, Church Spotlight, Business Spotlight, U.S. Flag Watch, fountains, holiday scenes, neighborhood meetings, community projects and events, or the online live-stream programs, text Dr.G @ 909-213-3730. Questions and comments are always welcome.