April 11, 2008

Gateway Church was recently featured on News Channel 5. And it was positive! To view the segment, please visit the Channel 5 website.

March 23, 2007

St. Patrick's Day Collaboration (from Downtown Cleveland Alliance)

Cleveland, OH: St. Patrick’s Day is traditionally the day when hundreds of thousands crowd into downtown, take in the famous St. Patrick’s Day Parade, eat and drink in local pubs and restaurants, and enjoy the best downtown has to offer. The day after, while people are home recovering, downtown is busy cleaning up after the quarter million people blitz. This year, the clean-up was swift and noticeable thanks to a collaborative effort between the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, the City of Cleveland, and a group of college and high school volunteers.

The students, including 15 from outside Ohio, were brought in by Gateway Church, a new downtown church. “Our students loved working with the Ambassadors” said Alex Ennes, Senior Pastor of Gateway Church. “They had joint roll call with the Ambassadors and worked together with them through the afternoon. We were very impressed with their friendliness and professionalism.” When asked why students would use their Spring Break as a chance to pick up litter and perform other service projects, Ennes said, “One of our main focuses [at Gateway] is serving the city. These students want to serve and make a difference.”

“The desire to get involved in building a dynamic downtown is strong and continuing to grow,” said Joe Marinucci, President of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance. “We want to engage as many people that want to be a part of building a better downtown. Alex approached us to help out with the St. Patrick’s Day clean-up, and we were happy to have his group work with us.”

Ted Hissam, the director of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance’s Clean & Safe Ambassador Program said that the Ambassador’s and volunteers picked up a total of just over 5,000lbs of trash between Saturday and Sunday. “The students were just terrific. They were very positive and upbeat, and our Ambassadors enjoyed working with them.” In addition to cleaning the streets, the Downtown Cleveland Alliance Ambassadors were out in full force to assist pedestrians and motorists with directions, information, and help Cleveland Police with security. Ambassadors were able to assist over 300 pedestrians and motorists on St. Patrick’s Day alone.

Since the Clean & Safe Program began back in April of last year, the Ambassadors have picked up over 73 tons of trash from the streets, removed over 2300 graffiti tags, and power washed 1385 building faces. They have assisted over 24,000 pedestrians and 13,000 motorists, and as of March have logged close to 30,000 miles by bike patrol.