DUTCHTOWN, Mo. — A community celebration and cleanup brought together city leaders, neighbors and business owners to Dutchtown Saturday.
The South St. Louis neighborhood celebrated its third annual 'Food Day and Community Festival' on Saturday. It was a day of celebration and giving back.
Music filled the intersection of Meramec St. and Virginia Ave. all day Saturday. Caya Aufiero, Dutchtown Community Improvement District President, said it's a day about honoring the neighborhood's roots.
"We have just such a wonderful diversity, variety of members in our community, and merchants in our community, so we wanted to celebrate that," she said.
According to Aufiero, the annual event started as a celebration of life for the founder of Tacos La Jefa. The festival falls on the founder's birthday and the eve of National Hispanic Heritage Month.
"We celebrate her life, as well as Hispanic Heritage Month, and have broadened it into a really a celebration of all the wonderful cultures that we have. That melting pot that America is so famous for, and we are very famous for here in Dutchtown," she said.
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Small businesses featuring locally made food, art, clothes and more lined the streets. Aufiero said the community gathering serves as a good reminder.
"We forget to mention all the wonderful positive things that happen every single day in Dutchtown," she said.
Just down the street from the community festival, volunteers and neighbors came together in Marquette Park to clean up. Keith Antone Willis Sr., SLACO Project Manager for 'Sunday Whiteside Keeping It Clean Initiative,' said it was their largest turnout for these cleanups.
"We did a heck of a job. We got four of those drive-away dumpsters, full, full, full to the brim, so they did an amazing job today, and I am so excited and grateful that the community came out on this day," he said.
Over 100 volunteers from 15 different organizations joined the 'Sundy Whiteside Keeping It Clean Initiative,' according to Willis.
"When you have a cleaner neighborhood, it feels safer, and folks want to move to that neighborhood, people want to live in a clean neighborhood, where we have safe places for our kids to play," he said.
Alderman Shane Cohn has called Dutchtown home for over 20 years.
"I've seen it blossom into the wonderful community that it is today," he said.
Alderman Cohn was proud of everyone who came together Saturday to help beautify their neighborhood.
"It generates a sense of pride in the neighborhood that we call home, and it's amazing to have this large amount of people out volunteering today, making Dutchtown a cleaner, happier, safer place for everyone that calls it home," he said.
Whether they were cleaning up or celebrating, these neighbors are proud of their community.
"Dutchtown is one of the most densely populated, most diverse with a rich history about it, and it's just a wonderful place to call home, wonderful architecture, wonderful people, and we have a ton of families, so it's a great place to raise a kid and call home," he said.