DowntownDC Business Improvement District (BID) Safety/Hospitality and Maintenance employees (SAMs) once again contributed their hard work to the annual fall downtown cleanup project orchestrated by First Trinity Lutheran Church (501 4th Street NW).
Each year, SAM Maintenance Services Manager Ron Jones works with BID board member Rev. Thomas J. Knoll of First Trinity to identify a Downtown location in need of some maintenance and care. In recent years, the SAMs have worked with church and community members to enhance the public space around the DC Fire Department Engine-2 station.
This year, with the help of Maintenance SAMs Wayne Cain and John Morton, the BID helped spruce up the area around the church’s block at 4th and E streets NW, which contains Trinity Lutheran Church and the D.C. Office of the Attorney General.
Under the fall Sunday sunlight on Sept. 13, the SAMs aided a dozen Trinity volunteers in varied beautification efforts. The SAMs put down nine barrels of mulch, removed several bags of trash and spruced up the landscaping around 15 tree boxes. In addition to the sidewalk shape-up, church members made food bags for the hungry, put together hygiene kits for refugees and harvested honey from the two bee colonies the church houses on its roof. The conscientious stewards then joined together for a light lunch at the conclusion of their work.
Maintenance SAMs work 362 days a year to clean and maintain DowntownDC through trash removal, recycling, power washing, graffiti, sticker and gum removal, and beautification efforts including painting, hanging flower boxes and maintaining select plantings.
The BID partners with stakeholders through various means to maintain and improve the Downtown area. The BID has been working with First Trinity Lutheran Church for several years on this cleanup project. Rev. Knoll said he offers his “thanks to Ronald Jones and the work crew of the Downtown BID for all the support they gave us to make this project a success.”