YES Club members working outside the armory. Left to right: Romano Orlando, Nico Araujo, Joaquim Lopez-May, Brian Fagella, Greg Goldstein and Charlie Zeeve. April 8, 2017 Photo: Leslie Yager
On Saturday, the Greenwich High School Youth Equipment Sharing Club (YES) partnered up with Birdie’s Auto Spa to sanitize the equipment through a steam cleaning process more often associated with auto detailing.
Eric Birdsall, who owns “Birdie’s Auto Spa,” donated the time of his crew for most of the day to steam clean and sanitize abundant pieces of lacrosse, hockey, baseball and football equipment.
Nico Araujo and Joaquim Lopez-May, both freshmen at GHS, helped move equipment out of storage and to the sanitizing process on Saturday. Photo: Leslie Yager
One of the club presidents, Greg Goldstein said that the previous weekend the boys began the tallying up their donations.
“We hit 1,400 and we’re only at the halfway mark,” Greg said. “We’ve already surpassed last year’s total of 1,355.”
“We record it, count it, put it in a box and tape it and then log it all into our database,” Greg said of the process.
Several club members, along with Johnathan Hernandez, Edwin Aduirre and Edros Flores from Birdie’s, all enjoyed lunch courtesy of Domenick Delfino of Joey B’s restaurant.
GHS freshmen, Nico Araujo and Joaquim Lopez-May, were the youngest members of the club helping out on Saturday.
“I’m new to the high school and this helped me adapt and meet new people,” Joaquim said.
“It’s been fun tallying up all the donations because you realize the total is in the thousands,” said GHS junior Charlie Zeeve. “And I like that in addition to Greenwich, the equipment makes its way to kids in Port Chester, Stamford and Bridgeport.”
Romano Orlando, another of the club’s three co-presidents said he was grateful to all the members of the community who went out of their way to help the YES Club this year.
“Lori Stapelton was so helpful,” Romano said. “She got us all of these boxes from Holly Hill. It’s another example of recycling, just like all the equipment here is being reused.”
Romano said that real estate developers at HB Nitkin were had been generous to donate storage space inside the armory building, making it possible to store a huge volume of equipment until it is cleaned, sanitized and distributed to local organizations including the Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich.
Johnathan Hernandez, Edwin Aduirre and Edros Flores from Birdie’s Auto Spa sanitizing donated sports equipment for the YES Club. Saturday, April 8, 2017 Photo: Leslie Yager
Johnathan Hernandez, Edwin Aduirre and Edros Flores from Birdie’s Auto Spa sanitizing donated sports equipment for the YES Club. Saturday, April 8, 2017 Photo: Leslie Yager
Johnathan Hernandez, Edwin Aduirre and Edros Flores from Birdie’s Auto Spa sanitizing donated sports equipment for the YES Club. Saturday, April 8, 2017 Photo: Leslie Yager
More information about Birdie’s Auto Spa is available online. Call, text or email (914) 438-5729 for an appointment 7 days a week. Find them on Facebook.
See also:
Birdie’s Auto Spa Brings Steam Detailing to Your Greenwich Driveway
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