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A clean Jamaica Avenue is her mission

Caroline Eckert is a one-woman cleaning machine.
The 71-year-old has been sweeping the streets - and battling litter along Jamaica Avenue not for one or two years - but for 49 years.
“One day I saw a sign that said Jamaica Avenue - let’s get the streets clean - it’s up to you,’” she explained.
Now, nearly half a century later, she still warns, “litterbugs don’t stand a chance.”
But watch out - she goes after dog walkers too.
Eckert, who does not get paid for her service to the community, says she starts her day - six days a week (she takes off on Sundays) at 7:30 a.m. at 107th Street and Jamaica Avenue. She ends at noon, she says, at the Richmond Hill Block Association (RHBA), at 110th Street and Jamaica Avenue.
Armed with a broom, trashcan, whistle, and even a sign that reads “Don’t litter” (which she wears around her neck), Eckert told The Courier that one of her proudest moments was meeting then-Mayor Ed Koch.
“He told me, ‘There should be more people like you,’” she said, beaming.
She also met former Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
For her decades of cleaning up the Richmond Hill community, Eckert was recognized by the RHBA at their 35th annual Park Fair on Saturday, September 6.
“I was surprised,” she said.
“Even when the weather is bad,” said Wendy Bowne, President of the RHBA, “it [fighting litter] gets her out the door in the morning.”
“Caroline Eckert is the ideal community volunteer that the Department of Sanitation (DOS) wants,” said a DOS spokesperson. “It is concerned citizens like this that assist the Department in keeping this great city clean and safe. We applaud Caroline Eckert and consider her an honorary member of the Department of Sanitation.”
Although she no longer cleans up when it snows, Eckert says she does not intend to slow down.
“I’m not retiring yet,” she quipped.