On a recent Saturday morning, a group of Emerson Heights residents met in Joe Wade’s yard to hear about the Adopt-a-Block program sponsored by our partners at Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB). Sarah Grain from KIB explained that the program is designed to help neighbors build a sense of stewardship of their block and reduce trash.

How It Works
Residents sign up to become a Block Coordinator and organize other people on their street. Together, these neighbors work to keep the public areas, including the street and alley, free of trash. Representatives from KIB and the city then score the blocks on a scale of 1-4 each month through the warm weather. A block that averages a “2” or better will receive free flowers from KIB in the spring. Sarah also provided participants with gloves, trash bags, brooms, litter grabbers, etc. to help in the efforts.

If Adopt-a-Block participants are successful, for the streets that have medians, the flowers can be used in flower beds at the cross streets. On other streets, the flowers can be used in front yards or in flower boxes / planters to enhance the curb appeal of the neighborhood.

Example: 700 Block of Wallace
Chris Coy is the Block Coordinator for the 700 block of Wallace and he was so excited he rushed and put door hangers on each door on his block. He received a great response. Within an hour of putting the door hangers out he was weeding curbs and was joined by two adults and five kids. Together, they picked up trash for hours!



Chris said, “I am so proud of my block and the young people who worked so hard. I woke up Sunday to find these kids picking up trash again! WOW, what a great feeling.”

The kids, Frankie, Margaret, Jasmine, Courtney, and Cade even named their club the 700 S.C.K.s (Street Cleaning Kids). He rewarded the helpers with ice cream and later they cooled off with a water fight. Besides the kids, Chris would also like to thank the adults, Beth and Barb, and the residents of 714 for supplying the water for the water fight.

They planning on a heavy clean-up on a Saturday in August followed by a Pizza party.


How You Can Help
We are still looking for Block Coordinators on many streets! Please help us keep the neighborhood clean and earn free flowers by volunteering to be a Block Coordinator or assisting one that’s already established. Contact Joe Wade or Kurt Wiegand at 375-0239 or webmaster@emersonheights.org. We can tell you how to sign-up and get started.

If you can’t volunteer right now, try to help out by making a habit of picking up the trash in front of your own home and keeping your part of the alley clean. Remember to put all of your trash in the dumpster since they won’t pick up bags of trash that aren’t in a dumpster. Also, wait until heavy trash days to put heavy trash out. For more info on trash disposal see “Talkin’ Trash”.

The Adopt a Block program dovetails very well with our efforts to make Emerson Heights a more attractive and marketable neighborhood, including our efforts to revitalize the medians. Having a clean neighborhood discourages crime by demonstrating that people care. It also improves property values and helps retain quality tenants in rental property.

Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc. has been a very helpful partner for Emerson Heights including our tree plantings, neighborhood cleanups and the Adopt-a-Block program. We want to thank Sarah and everyone at KIB for their support.