Broken window theory the drive behind I love Nigel

This is the drive behind their community initiatives.

I love Nigel is a community committee chaired by Jake Ceronio with the sole purpose of cleaning up the town of Nigel. The members are all volunteers who give up their Saturdays to restore the town to its beauty.

“We are grateful towards the Nigel residents for their support and the volunteers are growing each Saturday. While cleaning the main road on November 7, we met new volunteers who joined and helped us cut the grass and trim the edges of the island,” Aileen Ceronio said.

The main road in Nigel was the focus on November 14.

“We sprayed weed killer and trimmed dead branches where necessary before we went to the town hall to give the grass a much-needed cut. We also cleaned up the parking lot next to the town hall,” Aileen added.

The old Nigel publicity association building and gardens were also cleaned. The children who joined for the clean-up were in for a treat as Glenda McAdam offered up her Saturday to paint rocks with the little ones.

“We placed all the rocks at the town hall and it looks beautiful. The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves and with Glenda’s energy and amazing vibes it’s easy to understand why,” Aileen said.

Jake and his team informed they have been inundated with calls from the residents about stories of crime increasing in the once-safe town.

During the administration of Rudy Giuliani in 1993 in New York, he introduced the broken windows theory. He believed to reduce crime you need to clean up the streets. You need to stop petty crime. You need to stop people from urinating in public.

You need to pick up trash. As soon as a neighbourhood or town starts to look unkempt and neglected it becomes a haven for antisocial and criminal behaviour. Once you start dealing with the small issues you start empowering people. Once you do this you strengthen your communities. It is this dynamic that helps prevent crime.

The broken window theory is what drives the community of Nigel.

“We firmly believe that if we all do our part in cleaning up the town, crime will start to decrease. If you sweat the small stuff, the rest will follow. It is a proven theory,” Aileen said. “We give up our Saturdays to clean up the streets and restore our town. We are grateful towards the community and local business owners for their support and also for the transfer station for their excellent service in providing us with skip bins,” Aileen concluded.

A neon night race will be taking place on November 27; a beer garden and food stalls will be available. All money generated will go towards repairing the town.

The I love Nigel team meets every Monday at 6pm at the Nigel Bowling Club.

Aileen Ceronio can be contacted on 083 260 2967 for more information or to get involved.