Brook Park Pride and Beautification Committee

I attended a Brook Park Pride and Beautification Committee meeting and was appalled by this committee's attitude towards its own mission statement, which reads:

The mission of the Beautification & Pride Committee is to encourage and LEAD in beautifying the homes, businesses and public properties and to promote and acknowledge the public display of pride of being part of Brook Park. The committee HOPES to meet this MISSION through the sponsorship and promotion of various activities, including community clean-ups, beautification projects and public displays of community pride.

As I walk my dog on the streets of Brook Park, I see many residences that need some beautification, either weed clean up, yard cleanup or anything that makes homes presentable.

I went to this meeting to ask to join the Brook park Neighbor Help Your Neighbor program that was started by council lady Jan Powers. This means not only her ward but all residents of
Brook Park whose homes need some sprucing up.  

It seemed to me that this committee didn't want any part of this. Most members I know of are elderly ladies that only sit and make decisions and are too old to actually do the hard labor.

I also see businesses whose properties need cleanup or some need their parking lots to be repaved.

So why does this committee exist? DO the members actually "encourage, lead and help residents by giving them information of how they can turn their homes into homes that are respectable"?

No, they don't and they don't encourage businesses to make their properties presentable to the general public, in my opinion. 

This is what I was told by a member and that is not what we do??? So why do they have a mission statement if they can't even follow their own purpose of the committee?

Bogus, isn't it?

Beautification and Pride doesn't mean you have a few nice flowers and srubs and then you get this plaque that says you are an award winner!!!

Beautification and Pride is the whole city, making sure every home and business looks halfway decent, beautiful and proud or pride.

I also had some fundraiser ideas, but walked out of the meeting with disgust.

The Brook Park Neighbor Helping Neighbor will embark next week to help seniors who are not able to do yard work. We will try to use their own yard equipment also. We need all type of able bodies to help us.

The more volunteers, the more we can get done. Hopefully, we can make a difference. You can contact me at thebour11@sbcglobal.net or 216-633-1160 with referrals  of residents who need help and give us their names and telephone numbers and addresses. You can contact Jan Powers at 216-676-4372 and leave a message with the above information.

Thanks and God Bless Brook Park,

Sue Barbour