Doris L. Clinkscale

[ Home ] [ Writing ] [ Politics ] [ Vita ] [ Teaching ]

Doris L. Clinkscale

The nomination of Doris L. Clinkscale was the most unusual one received by WMAN. The nominator did not even know her name. But he wrote: "Every morning for the past several years, as I travel north on Germantown Avenue, at around 6:00 am, a woman is busy picking up trash. She single-handedly, without pay or organizational affiliation…keeps that section of the area free of garbage and trash. I did talk to her one morning and she told me she lives around the corner from Germantown Avenue, is retired, and just feels the civic duty to keep the area clean. She is there every day, hot, cold, humid, rainy….who could be more deserving of recognition than this good neighbor?"

The nominating committee agreed and, luckily, it was not hard to find Doris's name. Doris is a retired reading specialist in the Philadelphia public schools who has taught all ages of children. In addition to helping keep the streets ship-shape, Doris is the clerk of the oversight committee of Green St. Friends.

For about fifteen years, Doris has been picking up trash on the Avenue from Cresheim Valley Drive to Gowen Avenue. She works from about 5:30 in the morning until 7:00. She started doing this, she explains because “I live very close to Germantown Avenue. I saw how littered it was and just decided I didn’t particularly like the idea of living in dirt. I just decided I could do this, anyway. And maybe someone else would pick also up the litter if they saw me. On occasion, I see other people joining in.”

Doris tells funny stories of people who “take me to be a street person because I have a bag that has bags in it. I have even been offered money for breakfast. I refuse. And they say, ‘But you need breakfast.’ I tell them, ‘Believe me I would never come out here without eating a good breakfast first.’”

Doris was surprised when she received the letter about the 40 Good Neighbors. “This is just one of those things you do. As a Quaker, I believe in stewardship.”