Members of the University of Minnesota’s Project Dinkytown club aim to make Dinkytown a better place by promoting cleanliness and safety.

The club meets once a week on Fridays near the Dinkytown Target to pick up litter around the area. 

Elizabeth Overberg, a fourth-year student and the club’s vice president, said members go around the neighborhood for about an hour cleaning and talking to one another. 

“We usually go around Target, near Athletes Village, then back around near the Kollege Klub because that area gets really messy,” Overberg said.

Overberg said there is no set place where the club does its cleanups, and members pay attention throughout the week to what areas look messy.

“We just talk and pick up trash, which is kind of cathartic because it is a satisfying activity to do,” Overberg said. “You know you are helping, you see the difference and you get to do it with some friends, which is pretty awesome.” 

Sophia Boman, a fifth-year student and the club’s president, said she created the club in fall 2023 because she saw Dinkytown declining after the pandemic. 

“There’s a lot of businesses that are no longer running, and no one has really bought out the property,” Boman said. “I think since so many college students live there, it would be nice if it was a bit cleaner and safer.” 

Boman said the club works on safety initiatives during the winter. One of the club’s focuses going into this winter is implementing four-way stop signs in Dinkytown and surrounding neighborhoods. 

“There are mostly two-way stop signs, and it is impossible to see when you are driving,” Boman said.

Boman added the club has written directly to legislators about their initiatives. 

“We are also working on adding more street lights,” Boman said. “Some areas are pretty dark, even areas that are not directly within Dinkytown, but right next to it. Increasing the lighting would help a lot.”

Overberg said lighting allows people to feel safer and allows them to see where they are going at night, which may be particularly important for female students. 

“Especially as women, we often have to change our routes at night to go down streets that have more lights,” Overberg said. 

Zachary Ziegert, a fourth-year student and the club’s health and safety officer, said the club is also working on implementing crosswalks within the area. Ziegert said some locations near the Bierman Place Apartments, which is a common intersection for children to cross, may be an area the club is looking at improving.

Ziegert said his biggest task as the health and safety officer is ensuring the well-being of club members when they are picking up trash. 

“I am looking into protection from needles and namely fentanyl that could be scattered on the objects that we are picking up,” Ziegert said. “I just make sure that we have proper personal protective equipment like gloves and grabbers we use, so none of our members are harmed while trying to help out.” 

Ziegert said the club often picks up a variety of trash when cleaning the streets of Dinkytown, like CO2 cartridges, Galaxy Gas containers, beer cans and dead birds. 

Boman said some of the biggest challenges for the club have been securing funding for supplies and getting its safety proposals implemented. 

“With the city, there is a lot of bureaucratic activity that kind of slows us down, and there is not someone you can directly email to bring our ideas up,” Boman said. “It has been hard to figure out how to go about that.” 

Despite those challenges, Ziegert said he has made significant friendships and connections since joining the club. 

“I think just being able to bond over the common goal of making Dinkytown a better place, chatting about that and laughing about different things that we find has been super fulfilling and impactful,” Ziegert said. 

Overberg said the club allows members to see the difference they are making directly, which is unique. 

“I get direct feedback that I am doing something, and that fills my need to help other people,” Overberg said. “It is just super satisfying that I have the power to do that right in my own community.”