Volunteers clean-up downtown Denver streets after home opener mess

DENVER – It wasn’t just the sea of purple signaling Rockies baseball was back in action. Mounds of trash lined downtown Denver sidewalks on Saturday around the ballpark following the Friday night celebration 

The Denver Rescue Mission and some Rockies staff members got their hands dirty cleaning up the piles of waste left by fans. 

For 12 years, the Rescue Mission, Rockies employees and other volunteers have hit city streets the morning after the Rockies home opener to clear sidewalks of broken beer bottles and trash.

“By the size of bags and the amount of trash we’re picking up, it was a big day yesterday,” said Rockies staff member Jim Kellogg.

Denver7 caught up with Jessica Schuler ahead of the clean-up effort. Schuler is a volunteer with CHAMPA house. “I really don’t want to know how much I’m actually picking up, because I know it’s going to be a lot!” Schuler said.

For some volunteers like Schuler, tidying up was the least they could do for a community that had done so much for them.

“To be able to give back is a happy moment,” Corisha Spencer said.

She and Schuler were on a mission to make downtown Denver more inviting for others.

Schuler said the lessons she’s learned on Denver streets equate to much more than she could ever give back.

Hugging her daughter, she said, “They’ve provided a reconnection. We’re able to have these moments like this.”

Roughly 70 volunteers from different walks of life spent two-hours clearing sidewalks for the thousands expected to walk through downtown for day-two of the Rockies opening weekend.