Clarkstown Students Paint Trash Can for Nanuet Main Street Business

Nanuet’s Main Street revitalization effort got a boost Tuesday when Keep Rockland Beautiful teamed up with a group of high school students to donate a painted trash can to Uncle Louie G’s, a newly opened ice cream and Italian ice parlor.

“I personally think that a lot of people don’t take time to appreciate just being outside, especially with a lot of modern-day technology,” said Veronica Murphy, one of the Clarkstown South High School students who worked on the painting. 

“I was really glad to be a part of the program that encouraged appreciating outside and keeping it clean.”

Murphy and fellow painter Elissa Carl stood alongside Andy Stewart, the executive director of Keeping Rockland Beautiful, to present the trash can to Roseann Calvano, one of Uncle Louie G’s owners.     

“Louie G’s—they’re just opening up,” Stewart said. “Their business depends on having an attractive Main Street. We’re just contributing to an overall process of making the Main Street area a good, fun place to be, and that means people are going to go out to eat and to get dessert. The physical environment is very important for the economic dynamic there.”

Calvano echoed those sentiments, adding that before Uncle Louie G’s opening, the sidewalk was rife with litter.  She said the presence of the trash can has remedied that problem and made the business’s environment more attractive.       

“First of all, it’s beautiful, and the (group) that did it was very talented,” Calvano said.  “It’s nice to have things that are made from the kids in the community and donated to us.  We certainly can use it.  If everybody pitches in a little bit, people will hopefully throw their trash in as well.  When we throw it out every so often, we see that there are other people that do throw their trash out instead of throwing it out on the floor.  We’re appreciative of that.”

Murphy and Carl worked with classmates Arianna Starr and Lindsey June under the guidance of their art teacher, Rosemary Worum.  The trash can features Marilyn Monroe’s face on the front, with the girls’ names and other designs interspersed.

“We both love Marilyn Monroe and we think that she’s an awesome influence,” Murphy said. “Mrs. Worum liked it.  She encouraged us to look at something that we were passionate about, not just something to do with Keep Rockland Beautiful, but anything that really spoke to us and any style of our art, which made it a lot more fun because it made it easier to pertain to you.”

Stewart said the area needed more art in public places.  He said his organization brings cans over to Clarkstown South where students paint approximately 10 every year, expressing themselves through art.

“These kids are talented—they really know how to paint,” Stewart said. “They get a big boost from seeing their paintings out in public. We’re all very appreciative, and it’s something we need more of, particularly when it comes to trash cans.  It makes people smile, it prevents litter, and it makes waiting for a bus more interesting.”

Murphy, who said she wants to be an art teacher, recalled seeing one of the painted trash cans in Rockland and being intrigued by it.     

“There’s one on the corner near my house—it’s like a circus that I always thought was really cool,” Murphy said. “I told my mom actually. I was like, ‘One day, I want to do that.’  So I think this is really ironic but cool.”