Citizens from Aurora’s 10 wards were mobilized over the weekend for a community clean-up event, which Aurora resident Vivana Vargas said “is something that is certainly worth everyone’s time.”
“We are from the 5th Ward and, first of all, I want to teach the kids to participate in the community and I’m also very involved with things here,” Vargas said as she and her two sons finished registering for the event at a table on Water Street Mall in downtown Aurora. “I am a Realtor and I want to bring out the kids and teach them to be social and helpful and be out there with the community and clean up.”
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For the second time this year, the city organized a community-wide clean-up effort, with Saturday’s version beginning at 8:30 a.m. at Water Street Mall, where volunteers picked up collection materials and met fellow members of their clean-up crew.
Jon Zaghloul, director of communications for the city of Aurora, spoke before the event and said there were “great expectations for a follow-up” after the effort was organized for the first time last spring.
“This was launched in the spring of 2026 as an initiative between the mayor’s office and our community engagement division,” Zaghloul said. “This is a new way to bring the community together to enhance neighborhood beautification and work hard to clean up all 10 wards of Aurora.”
Zaghloul said that “typically, each ward alderman has clean-up events, but there has not been a citywide coordinated effort to clean the entire city.”
“This is the second event and it’s a great opportunity to bring out the entire community to work together on one specific day and clean up all 10 wards,” he said.
“This event is extremely important,” Zaghloul said. “It provides neighbors and residents with an opportunity to get to know one another and unites everybody around a common cause, which is cleaning up our city and beautifying our neighborhoods.”
Kathy Torres of the 1st Ward came out Saturday morning for the clean-up event and said her decision to help out “was all about having pride in our community.”
“We have to have pride and take care of it,” she said. “I wanted to be here because it’s keeping our community up – it’s keeping it clean.”
Torres echoed the thoughts of Zaghloul and agreed that “meeting other people in your ward or neighborhood” would be a side benefit of Saturday’s effort.
“Absolutely. It’s good to meet others and I am looking forward to that,” she said Saturday morning.
Mike Donato, who lives in Palatine but works for the Aurora Fire Department, took part in the clean-up effort.
“I work here but I wanted to participate in this. Its a nice, early morning Saturday thing and I had nothing going on. I wanted to clean the place up and keep it looking good,” Donato said.
He said the clean-up event was all about “pride in the city.”
“I love working here and I want it to look nice and I wanted to do my part,” he said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.