EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — A few different East St. Louis agencies came together to put trash cans along State Street.
"We want to change our narrative. We want to switch our paradigm. East St. Louis is not a City where you can just dump trash," East St. Louis Mayor Robert Eastern said.
He believes a small change can go a long way, starting with cleaner streets.
"When I drive through Belleville I see trashcans I see this that and the other and all these other nuances and things. We wanted to make sure we put those types of things in our community," Eastern said.
His efforts caught the attention of New Life Community Church Pastor Kendall Granger and Empire 13 nonprofit President JD Dixon to put trash cans along State Street.
"Community Life Line in New Life Community Church we have a grant for crime reduction and we were able to purchase trash cans out of that grant to help bring clean and green areas to our community," Granger said.
New Life Community Church donated $10,000 to buy about 20 trash cans the Mayor's Office placed along State Street.
JD Dixon's nonprofit Empire 13 will add even more through their fundraiser in January.
"We will be ordering the trashcans January 11th and then I suspect within that month we'll have our trash cans out as well," Dixon said.
Mayor Eastern says they didn't have a City trash pick up along State Street until now.
"Waste Management has donated a trash truck and they also said they would pick up the trash along the State Street route for us when we get these trash cans. So, when everybody is working together it just feels good," Dixon said.
"The nicer something looks, the better people treat it," Granger said.
For more information on how to help the Clean Streets Initiative, visit the Empire 13 Facebook page.