Thank you Troop 379 for your dedication to the community. Finding that live ammunition and removing it from the streets is important to all of us around the city. You never know how much good you can do when you take your time to help the neighborhood. -- Jay G., Highland Park

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Thank you, Jau, for expressing interest in Homewood's Redd Up program. It is held every spring and fall. Please check back with Elwin's blog for our fall date until our website goes live. In the meantime, Operation Better Block, Inc. has active block clubs throughout Homewood that organize clean-up projects--on a smaller scale--from May to October. Please contact our organizer, Khalif Ali, for events in July, at khalifali07@yahoo.com or call (412) 731-1908.

Let me also take this opportunity to put Redd Up in context for you and other readers who may be interested in supporting and participating in Homewood's Redd Up program.

For three years now, Homewood has been part of a multi-neighborhood project called the Homewood/Squirrel Hill/Point Breeze/Park Place Redd Up Coalition, which is connecting people and cleaning up trash/litter throughout the city and county.

Our neighborhoods coordinate spring and fall clean-ups with the support of: Public Works, PennDot, Allegheny Cleanways, our respective representatives on City Council, Citizens Against Litter, the Clean Pittsburgh Commission, PA Resources Council, and countless community not-for-profits, including churches, synagogues, and schools. (As my Pastor would say, "Lottie Dottie... and everybody"!)

What's unique about Redd Up is that it is a three-day clean-up project coordinated across communities. No detail is left "un-coordinated". Schools 'redd up' their campus grounds on a Friday, followed by community clean-ups on Saturday and Sunday, out of respect for the Christian and Jewish sabboths.

We also consciously chose separate clean-up days to encourage folk from Squirrel Hill to go to Homewood and folk from Homewood to make their way to Squirrel Hill to lend a hand. This strategy has proven to be quite a social experiment that has moved us all to a greater understanding of each other's communities. As you can image, beyond the 'surface', we have far more commonalities that differences.

And on the third day (no, that's not the beginning of my sermon--although, it could be one day), all of the volunteers from all of the communities come together for a wonderful cook-out (free of charge) to fellowship.

This event has been so successful that is has received the national Jewish Council for Public Affairs award for Program Excellence and a Proclamation from the City of Pittsburgh.

I would be remiss, however, if I didn't take this opportunity to again thank and acknowledge the many volunteers that participated in this spring's Homewood Redd Up and the support from Pittsburgh 250 Community Connections and The Sprout Fund.

Participating schools in Homewood included: Westinghouse, Faison Primary and Intermediate schools, Lincoln Primary and Intermediate schools, and the Student Achievement Center's Middle and High schools. Over 450 youth were organized and cleaned up around their school grounds on Friday, May 2.

And on Saturday, May 3, 90 volunteers braved the elements and collected trash in designated areas in the community. Our sweat equity resulted in removing 19 tons of trash and debris from Homewood-Brushton in 48 hours...along with that case of soft-tip bullets. Effective; efficient; environmentally conscious, and life-saving.

And of course, special thanks to Starbucks, Giant Eagle, and the Showcase Barbeque for food and beverage donations!

See you all this fall. -- Aliya D., Homewood-Brushton