This month, Block by Block Philly, a non-profit organization that seeks to keep the streets of Philadelphia clean, held a “clean-off” with a Chicago non-profit called Cleanup Club Chicago.
The clean-off lasted for the entire month of October and challenged both cities to collect the most bags of trash possible.
David Evans, the co-founder of Block by Block Philly is a massive Philly sports fan who grew up rooting for the Eagles, Flyers, Sixers and Phillies.
He decided to use his love of competition to fuel something else – a month-long community project that benefits two major cities. Block by Block held four clean-up events during October, including one on Cecil B. Moore Avenue on Oct. 25.
On a perfect fall morning, volunteers showed up outside the Cecil B. Moore Library wearing gloves and a yellow safety vest. They used grabbers, rakes, and shovels to collect trash. They spent the next two hours cleaning the front lawn of the library, an empty lot on 24th street and a portion of a sidewalk overrun by trash and weeds.
One of the people who joined the event was Kellan White, who lived right around the corner from where the clean up was happening. White found Block By Block on Instagram more than a year ago and knew he had to get involved.
“They had an event over a holiday weekend and my wife found it on Instagram, so we showed up and did the clean-up,” White said. “It was amazing. David and I connected and I have been doing them since then.”
The month-long clean-off is just the latest step in Evans’ journey to help the City of Brotherly Love.
He started Block by Block five years ago and it has blossomed into a movement that reels in dozens of volunteers for each event. The organization has grown significantly since he founded it, but Evans says that Block by Block is just getting started.
“We wanted to bring people together and we wanted people to feel good,” Evans said. “We wanted the city to be pulled up by their environment. We also knew that there was a correlation between a clean city and a safe city and that a dirty city or a dirty block, the more apt it was to be filled with crime, and vice versa, if it was clean, it had less crime and was safer.”
Evans was born and raised in West Philadelphia and has been back in the city for a decade after leaving for 15 years. As someone who has always hated seeing trash on the ground, creating an organization to combat the trash on the ground was an easy decision.
White, like Evans, was also born and raised in Philadelphia. He shares Evans’ dislike for littering and has taken pride in committing himself to helping the local communities around his home city.
“Any way you can give back to the community is good because the folks who live in these houses deserve to have a clean neighborhood,” White said. “A lot of these folks, I know this from being on my block, don’t have the resources or are not able-bodied enough to do this work. I have to do it and have to contribute to everything David’s doing across the city.”
Block by Block Philly was founded by Evans and his wife during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Evans saw trash collection as a way to contribute to his community and as a response to the social injustices he was seeing across the country.
Once the wheels were put in motion, it quickly grew from there.
It was initially just Evans and his wife trying to convince their neighbors to help them clean the block. But now, it has evolved into a city-wide effort where people can sign up to clean a block and there are consistently events for locals to get involved.
“It fills me with energy and joy,” Evans said. “It really it inspires me. So it’s almost surreal, like, ‘What am I building here?’ This has gotten really big and it’s grown more than just cleaning.”
Evans is working to build the organization beyond just cleaning blocks around Philadelphia. His work also involves trying to prevent illegal dumping and neighbor dumping, where he is now working with a coalition called Clean Philadelphia Now to reach those goals. Ultimately, he hopes that someday, Block by Block will not need to exist to clean up after people.
White hopes for the same from the organization, although he believes that Block by Block should not have to exist at all if the people of Philadelphia followed the rules.
“It’s a shame that we need volunteers to come out and do this cleanup,” White said. “It’s a shame that Philadelphia has the reputation of being Filthadelphia. It’s a shame that the social contract that we all should be following isn’t being followed.”
Block by Block Philly is continuing to grow and the organization is now working with Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker’s cleaning team.
Evans has major goals in the future for his organization. He hopes to expand Block by Block to address issues of tire dumping, improving recycling and increase composting in the city.
“It’s an opportunity to work with other organizations, to learn from neighbors and other leaders about what worked and what doesn’t,” Evans said. “I’m just learning a lot from other people that really love and care about Philly and the same things that I do about our environment.”
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