Clean up effort for downtown Duncan

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  • The community cleanup effort for Duncan’s historic downtown.
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DUNCAN – Dozens of volunteers worked the streets of downtown Duncan Saturday morning. From 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., crews worked together cleaning windows, sweeping sidewalks, picking up litter and trimming hedges along the city’s thoroughfares.

The annual ‘Team Up to Clean Up’ event hosted by Main Street Duncan provides volunteers the opportunity to give back and revitalizes a sense of pride in the community, said Destiny Ahlfenger, executive director of the organization.

“We started Team Up to Clean Up six years ago because we saw a need to improve our downtown, and it was a result of our business owners asking for help from one another,” Ahlfenger said. “Then it grew. We saw people, volunteers, organizations and business owners throughout the community just coming down for a couple hours because they have so much pride in our community.”

Among the volunteers were members of Duncan’s newest glazier company, D&D Glass and Mirror. D&D staff members swept sidewalks and business entrances, picked up litter and tree debris and treated several storefronts to a complimentary professional window cleaning.

Since opening their shop last fall, D&D has seen positive feedback and growth, said Debbie Smith. Although her husband is a second-generation “glass man” with decades of experience, she attributes part of the company’s newfound success to their involvement in community projects.

Smith’s 9-year-old grandson, Aaron Snyder, was enthusiastic about being part of the operation. Working side-by-side with his mother and grandmother, Snyder clean a few storefronts’ exterior windows and helped clean up the sidewalks.

“I wanted to do it because it helps it (our community) look better,” he said shyly.

Since 1986 Main Street Duncan, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, has been “dedicated to preserving the heritage of the downtown Duncan district.” The organization partners with local businesses and receives additional support from Keep OK Beautiful for the “Team Up to Clean Up” event, Ahlfenger said.

“To be one of the longest-running Main Street districts in Oklahoma really says something for the people who support the district,” said Ahlfenger. “Maintaining, preserving and promoting is the vision of the Main Street Dun- can organization, but obviously those who support it as well. We can see that through their volunteer hours.”

Team Up to Clean Up’s record of 54 volunteers was set a few years ago, added Ahlfenger. While the effort typically brings about 40 volunteers each year, she hopes to bring more community involvement to cleaning up the historic district.