The boys, who live on North Cutt Avenue, have been picking up debris and trash from around their own neighborhood. They’ve even taken to watering the flowers and plants on North Cutt, too.
Demar Terry, 11, Amir Coleman, 13, and Atlantis Coleman, 14, are undertaking these tasks in an effort to learn how to better take care of their community. They’re also learning to help their neighbors.
Their teacher, Margaux Roberts, is the founder of On the Gaux Enrichment Community Ambassadors. She started the organisation back in 2003 with the aim of “Helping Growing Minds Go The Distance!”
“Picking up trash, beautification, it’s therapeutic, because you kind of just get into your own little zone and you’re focused on one particular thing, which is making the beauty of Bond Hill,” Roberts told the news outlet.
She also noted that “It’s important that we take care of our community.”
One recent Saturday, while working, the boys had an encounter with Cincinnati Police Sergeant Adrian Miller. He saw the kids picking up trash and pulled over. Miller thanked the kids for their hard work and told them he was proud of them. He even snapped a photo.
“It made me feel great, me and my brothers,” Amir Coleman said, although they had at first thought when the police car stopped that maybe they were in trouble.
Roberts, however, saw positivity in the encounter. “I’m hoping because of that positive police experience they also see that there’s a partnership between the community that isn’t always negative or based off of violence,” she said.
Items that the kids have found and collected include fast-food boxes and bags, wrappers, liquor bottles, and soda cans.
“If you got some trash in your hand or you already ate it, you could at least just throw it away in the trash can instead of littering,” Amir Coleman said. “This is our community too. This is everybody’s community.”
Members of their community have welcomed the work that the boys are doing. The brothers have received thanks, and even drinks on hot days.
Terry, however, sums up why they do the work. “We just want to help,” he said.
