Saturday is the annual city-wide clean-up day sponsored by Keep Springfield Beautiful, and volunteers are needed to pitch in at projects in all city neighborhoods. The event runs from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Among the things you can help with, according to a call for volunteer from organizers: “remove graffiti, rehabilitate a blighted park or property, plant trees, flowers and shrubs, or clear trash from illegal dumpsites and city streets.”
The group also welcomes money and other donations; as KSB President Melvin Edwards said in the announcement: “A citywide cleanup is a big, expensive operation: tax-deductible cash donations and gifts of goods and services are crucial to its success.”
The clean-up effort, Edwards added, has tangible economic benefits: “Litter and graffiti devalue surrounding property by an average of 20 [percent]. Litter and graffiti attract crime and scare away homeowners, customers and commercial investors. One poorly maintained property could lead to the downward spiral of an entire neighborhood. The Citywide Cleanup fights an efficient, effective battle on urban blight by engaging all sectors of the community in this effort.”
When he’s not planting trees and sweeping sidewalks for KSB, Edwards serves as Ward 3’s city councilor; he’s also a candidate for the state Senate seat in the Hampden District. (See a profile of Edwards here, at Western Mass Politics and Insight. And, for the sake of balance, click here for WMPI’s profile of incumbent Sen. Jim Welch, whom Edwards will face in the September Democratic primary.)
Edwards was joined today by Mayor Domenic Sarno at a City Hall press conference to draw attention to Saturday’s event.
KSB will also sponsor a road race through downtown on Sunday, May 13, at 9 a.m. The race, which will start and end at the Basketball Hall of Fame, “promotes a healthy lifestyle and the City of Springfield as a great place to live, work and play,” and will take runners along a route that highlights “Springfield’s wonderful architecture, beautiful neighborhoods, and abundance of affordable Victorian mansions, single-family homes and commercial real estate, and the City’s diverse bounty of dining, cultural, sports and entertainment venues.”
For more information on the clean-up or the race, or to register for either event, go to the Keep Springfield Beautiful website. Interested volunteers or donors can also call Edwards at 413-348-8036.
