NORTHAMPTON — Armed with coffee, donuts, paintbrushes and power washers, volunteers from around Northampton gathered in the parking lot behind Thornes Marketplace on a recent Saturday morning with a clean-up mission in mind.

Among those who gave up half of one of their weekend days were Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, students from Northampton High School and others interested in helping do the dirty work of keeping downtown clean. They scrubbed grime off recycle bins in preparation for a fresh coat of paint, picked up litter and other trash and power washed buildings to wipe away “taggings” and other markings.

The work is all part of an ongoing, periodic effort led by the Back to Paradise Committee of the Downtown Northampton Association. The committee is focused on promoting public art, increasing greenery and helping with planting and removing tagging from public and private areas.

“We are looking to clean whole areas,” said Kevin McAllister, chair of the Back to Paradise Committee. “The Jazz Fest is coming, all kinds of stuff happens here, and it’s just unsightly what has happened on these buildings, and so we are going to take it back to zero.”

The committee is a volunteer effort that receives donations to do its work. Lowe’s Home Improvement is a major sponsor of the group, having provided hundreds of dollars worth of paint and supplies, according to McAllister. The committee also collaborates with USA Waste & Recycling to clean bins, the postmaster to get permission to clean mail boxes and the Department of Conservation and Recreation, which maintains the local trails.

In addition to the mayor and NHS students, other volunteers among the couple dozen on hand earlier this month included members of the Northampton Recovery Center and Smith College’s painting foreman.

“I’m incredibly grateful for the work of both Back to Paradise and the Downtown Northampton Association, and we have a lovely partnership with them,” said Sciarra, taking a break from cleaning and painting recycling bins. “I’m so grateful to be able to help, and I also just love doing stuff like this, getting outside and making our downtown more beautiful.”

The Back to Paradise Committee originated during COVID. McAllister and others noticed a lot of tagging around town on buildings, bridges and trails, and asked permission to clean it up. They started with the bike trail and bridges from Union Station and talked with people to get them involved in the effort.

At the recent Back to Paradise event, volunteers divided into teams to clean large power boxes, paint mesh recycling bins, and wash tagging off the walls on Kirkland Avenue. The green mesh recycling bins from around the city were gathered together and brought to the Armory Street parking lot where volunteers cleaned and scraped off the bins before painting them in bright Pride colors. Others cleaned off the large electric boxes at Kirkland Avenue and Pleasant Street, near Deals and Steals.

“We’re from the Northampton High School National Honor Society, and they post different volunteer opportunities, and this one seemed like a really interesting way to help out in a place that we spend a lot of time,” said senior Miranda Hunkins.

The other major project of the cleanup was washing tagging off the back of businesses and over murals. “We use the word taggers,” said McAllister. “Tagging is putting your name or your initials and painting someone else’s property… We are absolutely pro art.”

Jay Sullivan, a painting foreman at Smith College, did most of the power washing, and other volunteers sprayed a solution on the walls that helped wash off the paint. “I volunteered my time, and Smith volunteered the powerwasher and their solution,” said Sullivan. “It feels nice to do the right thing.”

The group hopes that by cleaning up these spaces they may be able to put up new murals as part of promoting public art, and potentially have a mural walking tour led by local students.

“We love our city, and this city is really a cultural center. The music, the dancing, the retail, the restaurants, the art, the book stores,” said McAllister. “All of that makes this such an amazing place, and to have the building and the sidewalks covered in a way that makes the town not look inviting … we just think that needs to go away, and we’re willing to put in the work.”