Coronavirus News: Westchester County teen starts volunteer PPE clean-up crew

ByEyewitness News WABC logo

Sunday, May 3, 2020

NY teen starts volunteer PPE clean-up crew

Nina Pineda has more on a 17-year-old Scarsdale student, who instead of being shut in and feeling helpless in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, got out and started literally cl

SCARSDALE, New York (WABC) -- A 17-year-old Scarsdale student, who instead of being shut in and feeling helpless in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, got out and started literally cleaning up.

Just a month ago, Sabrina Siegel's world was her family, prized pooches - Molly and Zoe - and looking forward to her spring sport obsession of playing lacrosse. And then, the pandemic happened.

"When this whole thing happened, I thought I needed a way to get involved," Siegel said. "I felt helpless at home."

Then, a lightbulb moment happened when she and her mom were at the supermarket and saw discarded PPE littering store parking lots -- something all too familiar these days.

"When you come out you see them all over the ground, that's when I decided I needed to pitch in and do things myself," Siegel said.

So she, her brother and mom -- armed with masks, gloves and grabbers -- went to Costco and purged the parking lot of all the discarded PPE. She also says she was inspired by Eyewitness News' story on gloves and other medical waste littered and overflowing trash bins.

"We saw that this was an amazing way to get ourselves involved being helpful and getting others involved," the Scarsdale High School junior said.

That's when her impulse became an idea, calling her organization "Fight Dirty - Keep Clean." A family friend even made a cool logo and she uses social media to get out the word.

"I just knew I was someone who could get people out there and I could get people to see what the big problem was," Siegel said.

In just a couple of weeks, Siegel recruited a cleaning crew of 30. It consisted of some friends and volunteers from town.

It's remarkably organized as volunteers have to fill out a waiver, then pick up masks and gloves left outside her front door. They're on the job just about every day. Her message and hope for her organization?

"Anyone can do this, I'm not anyone special," Siegel said. "I feel like any other teenager who's watching this - every little bit helps - whether it's a big thing or small thing."

The only thing she requires is unused PPE masks/gloves and grabbers for her volunteers. She has a GoFundMe page to help her raise money, and if you'd like to join her grabber gang, check our her social media pages.

She has a GoFundMe page to help her raise money, and if you'd like to join her grabber gang, check out the following:

- Email helpfdkc@gmail.com to volunteer

- Instagram

- Facebook