Volunteers sweep through Vancouver to make a difference

Bella Yeakle was a girl on a mission Saturday morning. Her face was set with determination against her foe: a whole bunch of leaves.

Bella, 8, was one of the youngest volunteers at Make a Difference Day, an annual day of service organized by the City of Vancouver featuring volunteer projects throughout the city. Bella, her siblings and mother joined a group in Uptown Village to tidy up Main Street.

“It can help the environment,” Bella said between collecting scoops of fallen leaves.

Make a Difference Day is a national initiative founded in 1992 by now-defunct newspaper magazine USA Weekend. It stands alongside Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Earth Day and other days of service. That’s where Hailey Heath, volunteer coordinator for the city, comes in. Heath helped coordinate events across Vancouver, with 323 volunteers picking up garbage, collecting cigarette butts, pulling weeds and planting trees.

“Sadly, there’s a great need,” Heath said.

Just how great of a need was apparent by day’s end, when volunteers had:

• Collected 18 pounds of cigarette butts.

• Filled 63 large garbage bags.

• Removed four cubic yards of ivy.

• Laid 12 cubic yards of mulch.

• Planted 3,001 native trees and plants.

Make a Difference Day is also when the City of Vancouver names the Ryan Woods Grassroots Community Award recipient. The eponymous Woods was a community organizer and writer who died in 2012 after a battle with cancer. Woods was 30.

This year’s recipient was Jonathan Hokama, founder of the Vancouver Run, Grub and Chug Club. The group started in 2014 doing exactly what its name implies: running, then gathering afterward for a beer and a meal.

But when the group grew to more than 2,000 members, Hokama recognized that there was an opportunity to leverage those numbers for good. Today, members help with volunteer events and manage the dog poop collection stations along the Vancouver waterfront trail.

“I really wanted to do something good for the community,” Hokama said.

Woods family and friends also use the day as an opportunity to memorialize his contributions. Patty Kunkle, who is friends with the Woods family, braved the crisp morning air to help in the Uptown Village cleanup.

“We need to participate in improving our community and what’s going on in the world,” Kunkle said.

Wendy Yeakle, Bella’s mom, agrees. She said it’s an opportunity to show Bella and her other children, Peter, 9 and Jules, 11, the importance of giving back.

“It’s important to get out and be part of your community, spend time with others and beautify your community together,” Yeakle said.