DAYTON, Ohio — Three years have passed since the Memorial Day tornadoes devastated the Miami Valley in 2019. Looking back on that day you can truly see how much work has been put into the recovery.
With most of the cleanup work complete, communities are now focused on maintaining after the mayhem.
Matthew Tepper is giving out assignments to eager volunteers in Old North Dayton — one of the hardest hit communities three years ago.
Tepper is the president of the Old North Dayton Neighborhood Association and is also the co-owner of Evans Bakery. He and 50 volunteers from the Living City Project are cleaning up trash that’s been piling up all through the community.
Tepper is compelled to make a difference because he doesn’t want to see his community fall apart, not after all they’ve been through.
“Because my neighborhood of Old North Dayton is a unique place,” Pepper said. “Dayton is a unique place. I feel like I can make a large contribution to add to something special.”
There’s no shortage of work, but none of it is related to the Memorial Day tornadoes of 2019 — that’s mostly been cleaned up.
“We’ve been fortunate on having a lot of resources come in,” Tepper said. “A lot of compassion and a lot of love.”
The Living City Project is a volunteer-driven cleanup effort led by Declare Ministry, one of the biggest driving forces behind the Memorial Day Tornado cleanup.
“I was in this neighborhood within the first couple days,” Declare Executive Director Caleb Ingram said. “I just thought, how will we ever clean this up. How will we this get done?”
Ingram said despite the mountain of work in front of them, no one gave up.
“Even though most of the tornado debris has been dealt with at this point, everybody here just says we’re here to make our neighborhood better,” he said. “We’re here to keep going, and build back, and build back even stronger than it was before.”
Volunteers work to clean multiple major messes in Old North Dayton (Photo: Tino Bovenzi/SN1).
The 50 volunteers are putting their hands together to clear out trash from illegal dumping at vacant homes, clearing out overgrowth to deter drug crime and vagrants, and overall working to beautify their community.
“What you’re seeing behind me is making a difference,” Tepper said. “Somebody around here is going to be looking at that and say yep, I’m going to keep it clean now. Now it’s manageable.”
Tepper hopes these efforts can inspire more people across the region.
“It’s that inspiration today that starts it all,” he said. “When people start seeing it, they’ll make a difference, and they do. You see it after the tornado. You see it now.”
