The Campustown area has been getting a lot of buzz lately with LANE4’s ideas for fixing up the area.

“I know there is opposition to LANE4, but there are also benefits to revamping the Campustown area,” said Charlie Nelson, senior in chemical engineering.

Although LANE4 was not in Nelson’s initial thoughts when he came up with the idea to put together the first annual Campustown Cleanup on Friday, he admits that cleaning up the area will give people a certain feeling of what Campustown is really like without all the mud, dirt and trash.

“The idea came to me when I was walking to class one day from Cyclone Plaza and everything was dirty,” Nelson said. “The wind had accumulated trash in the entryway and by the time I made it to Jeff’s Pizza there were about 300 cigarette buts on the ground.”

Later that day Nelson created a Facebook page. It did not take more than three days for Nelson to hear from people with ideas for a clean-up day and funding options.

Sponsors include the Campustown Action Association, Dogtown University, Pizza Pit, Fighting Burrito, Stomping Grounds and Campustown Property Management. Also, the city of Ames and Chandra Peterson, senior in political science, have assisted in putting everything together.

Nelson said there will be plenty of free food and entertainment, too. Pizza Pit will be donating soda and both Stomping Grounds and Nelson will be supplying food for a grill out.

“There will also be gloves, brooms, trash cans and garbage pokers supplied,” Nelson said. “And Campustown Property Management will be donating two power washers.

“Basically I don’t want it to just be manual labor, I want it to be more of a chance for you to chill with friends. I want to make it a little more casual, but still have that work element involved.”

Barb Brodie, who works with the city of Ames, set up the Street ‘n Greet Block Party Trailer.

“The Party Trailer is a collection of bags, karaoke and other fun games you need to throw a block party, created by the Strengthening Neighborhood Action Group,” Nelson said. “Another form of entertainment will be live music performed by the local band, Workshy.”

In the future, Nelson would like to organize a day dedicated to painting trash cans on Welch Avenue and installing ashtrays that are hooked to the outside of the bars.

“It has been a little of a cascading effect working with green initiatives,” Nelson said. “I think this will raise a little awareness because once kids start picking up trash they will start to realize the exact volume of trash there is.”

“The Campustown Action Association has an entire committee dedicated to the cleanliness issue,” Pederson said. “We are currently in the process of developing a plan on different efforts that can be done to help keep the area clean, and a future clean-up event.”

There are currently 109 people confirmed on the Facebook page, but it is an open invitation to anyone to show up at the Dogtown University parking lot, right next to the post office on Welch Avenue. The event will be 4 to 8 p.m. Friday or, depending on rain, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.