Letters to the Editor: Community service commendable

Thirty-five volunteers from Round Table Selective House are to be commended for cleaning up a creek near East Campus and a historic cemetery near the Medical Center. Early one Saturday morning, I thanked the group for their service, talked about the Erwin Mills cemetery and the Duke family's involvement with the mills on Ninth Street. Several later came up and thanked me. It was 30 degrees out there. When most are still sleeping under warm blankets, these volunteers deserve all the thanks for their efforts in the community near Duke's campus.

First, volunteers picked up trash along South Ellerbe Creek, near Ninth Street in Old West Durham (including large pipes from nearby construction). The next day, the group collected some 20 bags of litter from around the cemetery and nearby railroad tracks (including a color TV and a porcelain sink). Others dragged dozens of fallen branches out of the cemetery into piles so the city could haul them away. This effort re-opened a new trail the neighborhood association had established so elderly residents could visit family headstones in the back of the cemetery.

Working together, things are getting better in the Bull City. We are grateful to these Duke volunteers, and the many other student groups who've contacted us, for building bridges with the community around them.

John Schelp

President of Old West Durham Neighborhood Association