Volunteers spent two hours filling 100 yellow trash bags with garbage during the 19th annual U-District Community Cleanup Saturday.

The tradition of an annual spring cleanup began in 1990 to get the area ready for the Goodwill Games, which were hosted at Husky Stadium the same year.

Since then, the cleanup has traditionally taken place the weekend before the University District’s annual street fair.

This year, the traditional weekend was chosen so street-fair visitors would feel welcomed by the clean neighborhood, said Karen Ko, the university neighborhood district coordinator.

The city chose the weekend despite potential scheduling conflicts — including Mother’s Day and the Relay for Life fundraiser — which might have made it more difficult for volunteers to attend.

However, despite other events drawing students elsewhere, there were more volunteers this year than there had been for the past several cleanups.

“This is the best student turnout we’ve had in years,” said Lincoln Johnson, assistant vice provost for Student Life at the UW. Johnson has volunteered at the cleanups for the past several years.

This year, 46 volunteers cleaned an area including as far north as Ravenna Park and as far south as Northeast 45th Street. The eastern border was 20th Avenue Northeast, and 8th Avenue Northeast was the street farthest west that volunteers cleaned.

A group of UW students came from Mars Hill Church because they saw the cleanup as “a chance to serve the city,” said junior Edison Shi.

UW students were formally invited to the event through the school’s Carlson Leadership and Public Service Center and through the Office of Regional Affairs.

Although the Greek community makes up a large part of the student population north of Northeast 45th Street, Greek houses were not directly involved in Saturday’s community effort. They have their own community cleanup planned.

Next Saturday at 12 p.m., fraternity and sorority members will clean the area north of Northeast 45th Street again during the All Greek Street Clean, the final event of Greek Week.

“It’s something we do every Greek Week,” said Nick Feldman, vice president for public relations for the Interfraternity Council. “Usually we start out at 17th and fan out to our respective streets.”

Jenna Wild, who heard about the event through the Carlson Center, was glad she took part in Saturday’s cleanup.

“I’m very happy I went,” she said. “I would definitely encourage people to go.”

Reach reporter Kaitlin Strohschein at news@dailyuw.com.