500 strong clean up Belize City on Labor Day

While a majority of residents enjoyed a day off from school and work on Labor Day, Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley and a dedicated army of five hundred men, women and children had their hands in the dirt, ridding the streets of the Old Capital of excess refuse.  The initiative was dubbed Labor for Belize, a massive cleanup campaign organized by the Belize City Council and its corporate partners.  The objective was to get into as many hotspots as they could during the operation and give the city a much needed makeover by painting signs and planting trees.  According to Mayor Bradley, the drive was very effective.

Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor

“It was very, very successful.  We had over five hundred residents and businesses come out to support the initiative and we had thirty-one projects going on throughout Belize City.  The city council and employees of the city council, we were primarily responsible for the Northern Highway, from San Cas Plaza to the Haulover Bridge, and we did a series of cleanup campaigns out there.  We painted some of the trees, we planted trees and we did other activities in the area just to restore the look of the area.  We had tremendous support from residents and from corporate sponsors.  Both of the sanitation contractors were out there giving us assistance throughout the day.  We had a lot of schools participating, a lot of businesses, Benny’s came out, RF&G came out and lots of businesses came out to really support the initiative.”

Isani Cayetano

Darrell Bradley

“In terms of some of the problem areas or what we would describe as hotspots for garbage and litter and what have you, how was that addressed within that short space of time?”

Darrell Bradley

“Well some of the areas that we cleaned were designated hotspot areas.  Some of these hotspots were located along Mahogany Street.  We cleaned that area [and] we had a very, very nice program, lots of students went out to that area.  We cleaned both sides of the streets and we planted and in a lot of other areas, for example in the Cemetery Lane area, behind the Civic Center, Mopan Street.  So we targeted some of the areas where there was community interest in doing activities on Labor Day and areas also which were identified as being some of these hotspot zones.”