A sea of more than 630 volunteers in bright green “I love White Center” t-shirts descended upon 21 different locations to pick up garbage, paint murals, plant trees, lay sod, weed invasive plants – you name it – all in the name of beautifying White Center on a beautiful sunny day on May 14.

The army of volunteers was amassed for the 2011 White Center Community Spring Clean put on by the White Center Community Development Association (CDA).

White Center Welcome Sign on Roxbury
Darrel and Terry Peart along with Victoria Herrera were in charge of cleaning up and planting flowers at the White Center Welcome Signs and started out with a fresh coat of red paint on the brick base of the sign on Roxbury, entering White Center from West Seattle.

The Pearts said they live in the area and showed up for registration this morning up for any task at hand. They would be moving on to the other signs to plant flowers after finishing there.

Hicks Lake Park/Dick Thurnau and Friends of Hicks Lake
Teenager Tony Vo was planting trees and picking up garbage in Hicks Lake Park. “I live in White Center and I want to clean up our community,” he said, adding: “And I really wanted one of these shirts!”

Dick Thurnau is a longtime steward of Hicks Lake who hopes to one day see it’s algae problem solved if county funding ever becomes available. He said his parents learned to swim in the Lake in the early part of the 20th century. Swimming was banned in the lake in 1975 because of the algae infestation and unsafe chloroform levels.

A team of at least 25 volunteers were working at Hicks Lake, planting new aspen trees along the banks, placing sod where needed, pulling invasive plants from the ground and picking up garbage. The park was in store for a serious facelift by the time they were done.

New Angkor mural at 16th and 98th
Artist, printmaker and muralist Zachary Bohnenkamp was brought in by the CDA to revitalize the northeast wall at the intersection of 16th Ave. s.w. and 98th Ave s.w. with a mural entitled “New Angkor.” Angkor refers to the Cambodian ruins of the Khmer Empire, and the massive mural – stretching at least 100 feet – will be a recreation of that spiritual place in honor of the Cambodian population of White Center.

Bohnenkamp sketched the idea out the day before the Spring Clean and created guidelines for his 20 volunteers to lay the basic paintwork. He plans to come back on May 15 with spray cans in hand to put the finishing touches on the mural, adding details and fades to bring Angkor to life in White Center.

The view from the WCCDA (White Center Community Development Assoc.)
Aileen Balahadia, Executive Director of the WCCDA pointed out that last year this event drew 400 volunteers and this year that number rose by more than 150%. She was most impressed by the mural at New Angkor Market. "It's a good snapshot. I saw 10 or 11 young people with paintbrushes in their hand really transforming that space. I love that. I drove by the lot near Mt. View Elementary School that will hopefull be developed into low income housing (at least two to four years away) and that was amazing. There were four or five tents that were found. Now for the police it's all about line of sight and now they can see."

Balahadia added that this kind of work can improve people lives too. "One lady told me she has been afraid to set foot anywhere west of her house but now it's cleaned up and easy to see."

The lot at 15th and 107th s.w. and Eagle Scouts
Mark Ufkes, White Center Chamber of Commerce President and Scoutmaster for Troop 375 in Burien worked in cooperation with the WCCDA to clean up this lot which has been the scene of numerous police calls due to drugs, drinking and homeless encampments. He brought along two Eagle Scout candidates both working on this project to earn that status. Max Arbow and Taylor Beard, both 16 years old came to clean up the lot and perform community service.

"This was one of the sites that the Chamber identified as one that needed attention, so I spoke to the Delridge Neighborhood Development Association and they agreed it should be cleaned up. So I got our eagle scout people involved and now, we're even talking about turning this into a P-Patch and finding our positive uses for the land until it's developed, " Ufkes said.

You can see more images of the event, posted by the WCCDA here.