The Olneyville Times

BETTER HOMES
AND BETTER
HOME TOWNS

The Slogan For The Clean-Up And Paint-Up Campaign That Opens May 1st.

There is no sentiment in the human heart stronger than the love of home; closely associated with it is love of our home town, or city, and our country. There is not a man, woman or child that does not, down deep in his heart, have this love of home. We all swallow a bit hard, many of us even wipe away a tear, when we listen to the music of that immortal song "Home Sweet Home." Especially is this true when we have wandered away from home. This love of home should be fostered and encouraged in everybody, especially in our children, as it will do much to increase their love of country and respect for its institutions and those in authority. How can we do this in any better way than by improving our homes and making them cleaner and more attractive inside and outside, thus engendering in ourselves and our children a greater pride in our home and a greater love for it. The Clean-Up and Paint-Up Campaign that opens May 1st is designed to make beautiful towns and cities by starting first with the unit, the home. Its purpose is to educate the careless and indifferent ones to show their love for their homes by making same as attractive as possible. Beautiful homes make beautiful towns, but of course all must do their part else the effect, as a whole, is marred and rendered of little avail. No great outlay of cash is needed; all we need is the disposition to do the best we can with what we have to do with. Soap, Scrubbing Brushes, Rakes and other Clean-Up supplies we most of us have on hand or can obtain at a small outlay. Some Garden Seeds, a can or two of Paint and a Paint Brush will cost no more than a small percentage of what the average New England family pays for amusements. While amusements and outdoor sports are enjoyable, it is a fact that there is a whole lot of fun in puttering around the home we love so well and seeing the place improve in cleanliness, comfort and attractiveness. It is remarkable what interest the children take in the Clean-Up and Paint-Up Campaign, and best of all it lasts throughout the entire year. One little girl who had worked with a group of girls picking up papers in vacant lots in her neighborhood during the Clean-Up Week noticed her Father a month after the Campaign was over, carelessly throw his newspaper into a vacant lot. She shook her finger at him saying, "Clean-Up and Paint-Up Papa." Father laughingly took the hint and hastened to recover the newspaper and look for a Civic Pride Can in which to put it. This year's Campaign is the third annual event and there are so many good things that just naturally have resulted from these Clean-Up Campaigns that we want to refer to some we have noticed. The home interest engendered by this Community-effort draws man and wife together, Father and the boys seem to stay around the house more than they used to, is often remarked by Mother. The reason is that clean, bright, cheerful surroundings attract them and they prefer to gather round the reading light evenings at home rather than seek amusement elsewhere. In communities in which the people have worked together in a Clean-Up and Paint-Up Campaign, a splendid spirit of co-operation has been engendered. Neighbors have become better acquainted and respect for each other has taken place of prejudice and criticism. This Community spirit is shown in a report of the Cleaning Up of schoolhouse by citizens of East Tennessee, which we reprint from the Federation of Women's Clubs Magazine: "A band of teachers, school patrons normal school students and boys and girls Cleaned Up and Renovated the McNeil School house in one day of eight hours. "The building, when they commenced at 8:00 a. m., was in as disreputable a condition as it could be and still be used for school purposes. The workers were armed with shovels, hoes, axes, carpenters' tools paint, whitewash, and soap. They nailed on new boards where they were needed, painted the building built a chimney, cleaned up the rubbish, scrubbed the floor, renovated the entire interior, constructed a book case for the teacher, tinted the walls a pearl-gray color, and hung pictures. The old desks were removed and new desks, supplied by the school district, were placed in the building. "The outlay aggregated, in cash $33.00. It included mixed paint, linseed oil, 4 paint brushes, 1-2 bushel of whitewash, $2.00 worth of weather boarding and lathing, 2 pounds of nails, 4 window shades, material for sash curtains, 4 pictures, a number of books to start a school library and one American flag. When the work was completed the building presented as attractive an appearance as the
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The Citizens should make it a point to patronize the local stores as much as possible during the Clean-Up period and mention the fact that they are interested in the Clean-Up and are giving things an extra polish on account of same, thus encouraging the Merchants who have contributed to the Campaign.

Citizens are learning that these Campaigns help real estate values because the selling price of any piece of property is very largely affected by the condition of the Neighborhood in which it is located. A dirty. littered up yard and unpainted house, located next to a fine residence, has often taken one-third off of the sale price of the latter.

The same applies to a dirty: dilapidated Railroad Station and littered up yards along the railroad tracks approaching a town; they hurt the Real Estate values and the business of any town.

In this connection would say that the Presidents of all the New England Railroad Companies have agreed to co-operate in this year's Clean-Up Campaign. May 5th has been set aside as Railroad Day to mark the date when they expect to have their right of way cleaned up, and also to call attention of the public to the effort they are making and ask co-operation by abutters in not throwing rubbish onto Railroad Property.

The most valuable help given local Clean-Up Campaigns has come from the women; the National Clean-Up and Paint-Up Campaign Bureau freely acknowledges that the success of this work is largely due to their efforts. Public spirited women everywhere are serving on local Committees and giving freely of their time for the good of the community. As all town cleaning up, is only house cleaning on a larger scale the co-operation of the women is absolutely essential to the success of any local Campaign.