Volunteer Spotlight: Keep Cincinnati Beautiful's Gary Dangel
Even though Gary Dangel has been retired for 12 years, he is busier than ever. As a resident of Cincinnati’s Walnut Hills for the past 30 years, he saw things that needed to be done in his neighborhood and got to work. He hasn’t stopped since.
“[Walnut Hills] is a neighborhood that’s on the rise,” said Dangel. “It’s a neighborhood that’s had its difficulties but is coming back. The saying goes, ‘be the change you wish to see in the world’ and I thought that was pretty good advice.”
He started small, volunteering with Keep Cincinnati Beautiful’s Vacant Lots Occupied program in 2014. The project was focused around taking vacant lots, cleaning them up, and “activating them.”
Dangel liked this project because he had been mapping the numerous vacant lots in his neighborhood and wondered how he could “take something that was a negative and make it positive.” And that’s what he’s been doing since.
