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By NOAH WORTHAM | Staff Writer 

ALABASTER – Local residents recently engaged in citywide spring cleaning and disposed of unwanted household items during the city of Alabaster’s 10th annual Clean Sweep.

Clean Sweep is an annual volunteer-based citywide cleanup event that is organized each year by Alabaster City Councilmember Stacy Rakestraw.

“It went great,” Rakestraw said. “This is our 10th year to do this event in April and people are just looking forward to it and excited to help.”

Rakestraw said the goal of the event is to educate the public not to litter and to provide a way for residents to clean out their houses.

On Saturday, April 1, 40 volunteers gathered together and cleaned up six miles of roadway and collected more than 53 bags of litter during the Clean Sweep litter pickup event.

The Alabaster Church of Christ, Girl Scout Troop 28212 and Girl Scout Troop 28215 volunteered to help during the process as well as Amanda Pierce, who was the first Clean Sweep volunteer and has worked every litter pickup event for the past 10 years.

Trash bags, fluorescent vests and gloves were provided to volunteers. The Alabaster Police Department followed the volunteers during the process to ensure their safety, and the public works department picked up all the bags of litter on the following Monday.

A Shred-it and E-cycle event was held on Saturday, April 15 at Thompson Intermediate School as part of Clean Sweep. The event provided residents with free paper shredding and the ability to dispose of various household electronics such as flat screen TVs, computer monitors and hard drives.

During the Shred-it and E-cycle program, the city was able to collect 3,180 of electronic equipment and shredded 9,000 pounds of paper.

The people who (volunteered,) they all just have a servant’s heart,” she said. “They are welcoming people (and helped) get things out of the cars—just making it as quick and efficient as possible.”

Twenty volunteers from different community groups assisted with the Shred-It and E-Cycle event, including players from the Thompson High School football team who helped unload vehicles so that residents didn’t have to leave their cars.

Rakestraw expressed her gratitude for all of the volunteers who helped to make the Clean Sweep event a success.

“Thank (you to) all the volunteers and their service hours,” she said. “It was 120 service hours that residents put into volunteering and serving the community. I appreciate them, and we appreciate them as a city, doing that.”

More information on events in the city of Alabaster can be found the city’s official Facebook page at Facebook.com/alabastercityhall.