Bobbi Mastrangelo’s Art and Community Involvement focus on Caring for Our Planet Earth. This is the Second in a three part series on EARTH CARE.
Bobbi Mastrangelo’s dream of a cleaner town started in the late 1980’s. Her manhole art caused her to notice the condition of streets and sidewalks. What could she do about the litter in her quaint little town?
 “You Can Make a Difference” by Earl Babbie |
A friend advised her to read Earl Babbie’s Book: You Can Make a Difference. “It tells how individuals started movements for change, or solved civic problems,” she explained. |
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In May of 1986, Bobbi called together Town Board Members, Highway Dept Officials, Scouts, News Reporters and Friends wanting to see a neater town. A reporter named them: C.L.E.A.N. (Committee for Litter Elimination and Neatness). |
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Beth Ann Magnuson designed C.L.E.A.N.’s logo with crossed brooms and three flower symbols underneath. |
 Bobbi Mastrangelo as CLEAN Bear White Bear became the mascot. Cartoons depicted a white bear sweeping and cleaning the town. During one Parade, Bobbi Mastrangelo donned the CLEAN Bear Costume, rode the Highway Truck and waved to all the crowd. Girl Scouts, other Civic Groups and individuals adopted and beautified local areas, town parks, Their Post Office Grounds and the St. James RR Station. Bobbi Mastrangelo chose the King Kullen Supermarket Area and parking lot, the local litter magnet, for her Adopt-A-Spot. |
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 “Don’t Litter” Poster |
Children’s posters were hung at the Supermarket registers urging everyone to keep their town clean and beautiful. When the King Kullen Manager spied her, he would run out waving a large broom and grin: “OK Bobbi we are cleaning up!” CLEAN initiated annual clean-ups and sponsored coloring contests for children. Its members painted the logo on colorful vinyl trash barrels. They were donated to the Smithtown Highway Department and put out for parades and public events. |
 Bobbi’s Manhole Art appealed to the Employees of The Smithtown Township Highway Department. They explained street markings to her and actually showed her the chimney support below a manhole cover. The Highway Department worked together with CLEAN Volunteers for Town Clean-ups and put out the Decorated CLEAN Trash Barrels along parade routes. |
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 “Paul Harris Fellow Medallion” |
Bobbi’s Environmental Art and CLEAN Initiative caught the attention of the local towns folk. Smithtown Rotary awarded Bobbi “The Paul Harris Fellow for Achievement in Arts and The Environment.”
“For her relentless effort to keep things clean in the Town of Smithtown and for the work she inspired other to do, The St. James Times recognized Bobbi Mastrangelo as Woman of the Year in Civic Affairs” in their January 5, 1989 Edition. Bobbi felt that the award should be shared with all the dedicated volunteers who adopted spots and worked on local litter clean-ups. |
 RJK Gardens Adopt-A-Spot |
For over a decade The CLEAN Committee was very active. Bobbi has since relocated to Florida, but she is gratified to know of one Adopt-A-Spot that is still being maintained: Richie Kuri of RJK Gardens keeps the grass mowed and flowers planted at his Adopt-A Spot adjacent to King Kullen. (Note the blooming Irises.) Here is a poem about the CLEAN Group and Their Activities: https://bobbimastrangelo.com/MyNews/?p=5020
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If anyone participated in CLEAN or knows of more active ADOPT-A-Spots, please add your comments or send photos. Thanks!
Dear Bobbi: I hope to engage my community, as you did in St. James and Smith-Town. I will PIN your Article to facebook . Thank you for sharing!!!!
Dear Bobbi:
You sent me this message, and I was working on a sign for my street: LOVE THE EARTH!!! KEEP IT CLEAN!!! EARTH DAY IS FOREVER!!!!
I know You have been involved with C>L>E>A>N> and other environmental causes, constructions and messages. The rubbings of manhole covers, created by you and the children are wonderful.
Life is a circle, it is a wheel, it is a FLOW!!! Glad to hear from you and that you are sending forth your message.
We are “Up-State” Sisters, linked forever by “New Art in New York”. Thank you for sending this to us, Best to you and Al. Helene and Bill
W.And H. Leonardi & Co.
http://www.zhibit.org/heleneleonardi/small-paintings
cupcakes
http://www.zhibit.org/billleonardi/surreal-images
Dear Helene Leonardi,
I was so inspired by your creation of a sign for your street: LOVE THE EARTH!!! KEEP IT CLEAN!!! EARTH DAY IS FOREVER!!!!
that I copied your message and added it to the comment section after my next two articles: The Clean Story Poem http://bobbimastrangelo.com/MyNews/?p=5020 and…
Environmental Art Education: http://bobbimastrangelo.com/MyNews/?p=5051
I am proud to know you and I will be glad to share ideas with you.
You will inspire others to beautify their environments.
Hi Bobbi,
You keep our world beautiful every day!
Hugs n God bless!
Sheila
Earth Day was a good day for us to remember how much you accomplished by establishing “CLEAN!”
I commend you for all your efforts!
Stay well.
Dorothy Moloney
Thanks Bobbi for all the good and beautiful work you do. Litter is extremely annoying to me, too, particularly cigarette butts. I volunteer in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park and would you believe? Even there by the garden where I pull weeds for a couple of hours a week, cigarette butts are carelessly thrown. I’m strong on recycling of anything possible, too.
Keep up your good work!
Sincerely,
Nelda Harris
NPCW Pen Pal
Bobbi,
Keep up the awesome work, it’s very important and you set a great example for younger generations 🙂
Deb
My name is Mary Agnes, I work for a program called Safe Kids USA. We work with children on a variety of ways to be safer, healthier, and have a better impact on our environment. I have been recently been having sessions about recycling and reducing waste around our houses and classrooms, and your page http://bobbimastrangelo.com/links.php was very helpful for me.
I came across an interesting article while i was doing some research on recycling, about recycling electronics and computers, http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Global-Promotions/Recycling-Electronics/pcmcat149900050025.c?id=pcmcat149900050025 . I was unaware that Bestbuy offered that and thought it would be helpful for you to add to your page so it maybe could help other people dispose of those items properly.
Thanks again for the helpful resources! They definitely will be a big help during this session on recycling, and I think the kids will definitely benefit. If you add the article, I’d love to show them how we can all do our part to spread the word about recycling and being responsible to our planet! Have a great day!
Best Wishes,
Mary Agnes
mary.agnes@safekidsusa.net