Volunteers come together to clean up area behind Westside Lanes in west Olympia

Braving high winds and rain, a group of volunteers came together Thursday to help clean up the area behind Westside Lanes and Olympia Furniture Company in west Olympia.

Tiffany Valderas, a Shelton resident, was spearheading the effort.

Valderas, who has lived in Shelton her entire life and works as a bartender at El Sarape Cantina there, first thought of the idea after she came across a Dec. 15 post on Facebook detailing how the area was filled with trash. The post generated more than 1,000 comments and 2,900 people shared the post.

Instead of doing nothing, Valderas wanted to take a positive approach to the acreage that had had people camping out on it and had accumulated trash over time.

Valderas decided to head over there on Dec. 17 to do some cleaning, and she posted about it on Facebook, complete with photos of her with a thumbs-up. That post went viral locally, with more than 3,300 people reacting to it and 1,100 shares.

“I saw the post that said it was dirty,” Valderas said. “I said, ‘You know what, I’m just gonna go get some bags and clean it. And so I did that, I posted it and I’m thankful that more people wanted to help.’”

A Facebook page was then created by Valderas, called “Community Clean Up!,” which scheduled a clean-up for Thursday morning. On the page, 101 people said they were “interested” and 21 said they were “going.”

“I don’t think the question is why am I doing this?,” said Valderas, who goes by Alysia on Facebook. “I think the question is how come we didn’t do this sooner? I’m Native American and I’m very in tune with my culture. On the reservation, we’re all about helping people regardless. They (the homeless) have been shut out by society and I feel like as humans, we shouldn’t shut out anybody.”

Olympia resident Melody Keller heard about the clean-up through the Facebook page. Keller, who has two young children, said she was going to use the experience to explain to her 9-year-old daughter the importance of giving back to others.

“This is my hometown,” said Keller, 28. “I grew up here, and she’s growing up here. This isn’t what I remember it to be, and it’s not what I want her to remember to it be. If this is how it’s going to be regardless, then I want her to understand as a community member what you do to be part of your home. Take action, do something.

“Better than pointing your finger and playing the blame game. That doesn’t get anything done. This does. It might not make a difference, it might just be a Band-Aid to what’s really going on in Olympia and the root of the problem. But it’s something. And it’s better than nothing. It’s a start.”

Keller’s sentiment was common among those in the group. They were all there simply to help.

“I saw Tiffany had posted the picture, and all the positive feedback it got,” said Barbie Weaver, a Shelton resident. “It’s true. We need to do more to uplift our community than bash on it.”

A total of 16 people of varying ages showed up for Thursday’s work party, starting work just after 10:30 a.m. Armed with gloves, black trash bags and extendable grabbers — some even used barbecue grill tongs — the group worked for three hours.

Members of Just Housing, an Olympia-based group focused on advocacy for the homeless, joined in.

Within the first hour and a half of the clean-up, the effort was noticeable as the once-invisible ground became visible again.

The owner of C.P.C. Landscape LLC, a Tumwater company, dropped off his truck and trailer for the group to dump the trash in. The trailer was filled with bags, 14 in all.

Valderas said the work won’t stop there. She said she would like to move on to other areas in need of help.

This story was originally published December 20, 2018 at 4:44 PM with the headline "Volunteers come together to clean up area behind Westside Lanes in west Olympia."