Lakeview residents beautified their train station on Oct. 10, hosting a community cleanup event.
Volunteers went to the station and surrounding area to take out weeds, plant flowers, sweep, pick up garbage and more. They split up into groups to cover Donton Place, Woodfield Road, Eagle Avenue and other streets.
The cleanup was hosted by the Lakeview Civic Association, who host two of these a year: one in fall and one in spring. For the president of the organization, William Anders, the cleanup being at Lakeview’s Long Island Rail Road station was crucial.
“We felt like it was one of the more important places to create a visual,” Anders said, “so people stopping in our town can see just how beautiful the neighborhood is.”
Contributions were also made by the Town of Hempstead’s Sanitation District Six, who swept the street next to the station with brooms as well as brought a street-sweeping truck to clean the streets. Members of the MTA Police Department and other MTA employees participated as well.
Greek life organizations, like Alpha Phi Alpha and Groove Phi Groove, were there to support as well. Organizers provided service hours to anyone who needed them.
While other cleanups had been held in previous years, the idea for the cleanup was brought back by Lakeview resident and Civic Association board member Aisha Demosthenes in 2021. While walking through the neighborhood, she would notice the garbage piling up around the station as well as overgrown weeds. She then reached out to local politicians and Sanitation District Six, who agreed to participate in a community cleanup.
“We just got together on a Saturday morning, we came out, we cleaned and we’ve been doing it ever since,” Demosthenes said.
The event has been growing ever since. The Civic Association was formed shortly after the first cleanup, Demosthenes being a founding member.
While Demosthenes leads the project, there are many community members who help the project and participate in groundskeeping.
Cilicia Jolly, who has been attending these events for the last four years, is one of these members. A gardener since she was 10 years old and a Lakeview resident since 2007, Jolly jumped on the opportunity to join this event to beautify the station.
She said this is a great way to build Lakeview pride and for gardeners in the community to get more involved.
“As they started planting things, they became concerned about the conditions of the area,” Jolly said.
She added that, though many thought the train station and surrounding area was an “eyesore,” she has had people tell her how much better the place looks now.
Demosthenes wants the train station to be a source of pride for residents and a pretty spot to greet newcomers or people coming through.
“Lakeview is a very small but mighty town,” Desmothenes said. “This area welcomes folks into Lakeview. You have to come this way to drive into our community, so we deserve for it to look beautiful.”
