SMOKEY POINT — Tall shrubs and thick grass can cover a number of sins, as the volunteer crew that turned out May 14 to clean up around the Smokey Point Safeway found out.

The event drew 104 volunteers, organizer Jennifer Smith said, adding they were able to add two sites to the four already slated for that morning. They finished in two and a half hours.

Volunteers removed trash from the empty field south of the Safeway, as well as from the plant border surrounding the adjacent 7-Eleven. They even ventured across the street, to the parking lot of the empty Food Pavillion building on the west side of Smokey Point Boulevard, and also tackled the areas behind the Rite Aid and the strip mall, in the northwest corner of the intersection with 172nd.

Troop 92 Boy Scouts Logan Hartman, 11, and Christopher Krutzer, 10, were among those who hauled out industrial-sized tires from the field behind Safeway. Also, there was no shortage of wooden pallets, sheets of metal, lengths of rebar, and enough worn clothing, dirty cardboard and other debris to fill trash bags standing as tall as an adult and extending 30 feet lengthwise only an hour after the cleanup started.

“Our folks were all excited, happy and thankful that this was done,” Smith said. “I realized just how much the community cares and is more than willing to be part of the solution.”

Smith and a smaller group of volunteers will return to paint the 7-Eleven May 23, and she’s already planning another cleanup for August. She thanked Arlington police for helping her kick off the community cleanup campaign, as well as the local businesses that contributed employees and resources. Safeway served up soda, chips and freshly cooked hot dogs to those who’d worked up a sweat on their behalf.