By Kevin Lee

Daily Bruin Contributor

Fraternities and Westwood residents will team up Sunday to pick up trash and erase graffiti during Operation Clean Sweep, an event organized by the North Village Improvement Committee and the UCLA Center for Student Programming.

Volunteers, using equipment provided by the city, will clean the apartment area between Gayley and Veteran avenues.

“Operation Clean Sweep presents Westwood residents with a great opportunity to work and build relationships with fraternities,” said Shelley Taylor of the NVIC.

“The NVIC ... is committed to eradicating graffiti in our neighborhood,” Taylor added.

According to Scott Carter of the Center for Student Programming, one reason why he and Taylor decided to have an OCS event toward the end of the school year is because many students dispose of their trash in preparation to move out of their apartments around this time.

Each fraternity in IFC is required to provide 10 percent of its membership to participate in the cleanup.

According to Carter, approximately 200 people are expected to participate in the event.

The IFC won a community service award at the Western Regional Greek Conference last year for their efforts during the first cleanup event fall quarter.

The IFC fraternities will post flyers on apartments throughout Westwood seeking non-fraternity volunteers.

Taylor said she would like to have sorority members to participate in OCS.

OCS is a Los Angeles-wide program in which the city provides equipment to neighborhoods subject to excessive graffiti and trash.

The city provides items such as rakes, masks and graffiti-removing solvents, as well as a large compacting truck capable of taking in whole sofas.

Much of the graffiti is in the form of stickers, such as bumper stickers, or advertisements, Taylor said.

In addition to removing stickers and grafitti, participants will also trim hedges and pull weeds.

Taylor says she would like to have an OCS about three times a year.

“Many of the students living in Westwood are only here temporarily for school, and don’t really have a chance to get involved with their community,” Taylor said. “Operation Clean Sweep gives them a chance to do so.”

During the first OCS event last November, a crew of 75 volunteers picked up 5.5 tons of trash between Gayley and Veteran Avenues.

“This time with so many people, we could very well finish within two hours,” Carter said.

An orientation meeting for the event will be held at 9:30 a.m. at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house on Gayley Avenue.

“We’re all pretty excited about participating in Operation Clean Sweep,” said Cameron Kalunian, Community Service chair for the Interfraternity Council.