College Square residents Inetha Rogers and Crystal Cradle are fed up with the amount of litter in their neighborhood.

“We have more McDonald’s bags in the streets than McDonald’s has at the store,” Rogers said. “It’s ridiculous our neighborhood looks like this.”

After moving to College Square three months ago, she said, she realized how serious the litter problem was when the streets flooded during a rainstorm because the drains were blocked by trash.

“I had to park on my yard because my driveway was under water,” Rogers said.

To solve the problem, the women are teaming up to clean up the neighborhood, and they are employing help from the people who are going to have to keep it clean in the future — the neighborhood kids.

“We need to teach them how to keep their neighborhood clean,” Rogers said.

From 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, the group will patrol all of the streets in College Square to collect trash.

Also helping out is the Nansemond River High School ROTC cadets. Rogers said the high schoolers will help supervise the younger children during the event.

“We’re just hoping everyone comes out,” Cradle said.

Rogers said she has received positive response from the neighborhood, and she hopes at least 150 people will come out.

After the collection time, the kids will be treated to refreshments, and the ladies will give out awards, including gift cards to different stores.

Rogers and Cradle got some extra help to put on the event with donations from the Food Lion and Walmart stores nearby.

Both women said they hope this event will teach the children to take pride in their community. Rogers added that she hopes the children will see that even if your neighborhood has been labeled a “bad” community, they can help change that label by taking pride in the area.

“Why not teach them to clean up,” Rogers said. “This is their home.”