‘Milkman’ picks up trash in neighbourhood bonding effort

The Milkman not only delivers— he cleans up, too.

The Bermuda Sun came across Public Safety Minister Michael Dunkley helping to clean up Penhurst Park, along North Shore Road, with about 25 members of the Cameron Close Neigbourhood Watch Saturday morning. The group also cleaned up along the nearby Railway Trail.

The Smith’s North Constituency 10 MP said: “Nearly everybody on that road is a part of the Neighbourhood Watch.

“They are having a neighbourhood clean-up today and helping KBB. They have everybody out — young and old. On the rocks there are three teenage guys cleaning up trash.”

Mr Dunkley said Neighbourhood Watches are effective and that the Cameron Close group is helping to unite the area.

“They not only make the neighbourhood safer, but what Cameron Close is showing is that they’re bringing the community together. Everybody comes out for the clean-up and then everybody will come out for the barbecue at one o’clock. This is really good.”

Shelly Riley, spokesperson for the Cameron Close Neighbourhood Watch, said the group has been in existence for a few months and today’s was its first major event.

“We had a few concerns in our neighbourhood and there was a need for us to all come together and form a group. There is a need for us to look out for one another. We have lots of children in the neighbourhood and we’re a close knit family and we were very concerned about a few things that were going on.”

She said the group meets once a month and Mr Dunkley has been very supportive.

There have been a couple of road fatalities near Terceira’s Shell station over the past year and Ms Riley said: “We’re doing all sort of positive things and one of the things we’re looking at is how to make the road safer down the north shore.”

She said there are police officers who come to every meeting and give tips on how make the neighbourhood safe and involve children in positive activities.

Sherry Swan, a Cameron Close Neighbourhood Watch member, said there are plenty of signs on the street to let people know this is an active and vigilant group: “We wanted to do this as part of a KBB cleanup. Mr Dunkley came to our last meeting and he was fully in support of it and came out today to pick up trash with us.”

She said the event is helping build harmony in the neighbourhood by working towards a common goal.

“Sometimes people don’t know who there neighbours are, so this is a good way of us being able to bring our neighbourhood community together.”