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Friends of G.R. Parks Invites You To Help With Parks Clean-Up

picture of trees newly planted
Friends of G.R. Parks

Friends of Grand Rapids Parks in partnership with the City of Grand Rapids Parks and Recreation Department, is inviting the community to take part in a two-day, community-wide park clean-up initiative. 

The event is called “It’s My Park Days” and has more than 30 projects available throughout the city on April 16 and 17th.  This is just a few days prior to Earth Day 2021.

Park Ambassadors will be leading volunteers in beautification activities, such as picking up trash, spreading mulch and prepping flower beds for summer.   It all starts Friday, April 16th at 10 am and again on Saturday, the 17th.

Here’s Friends’ Executive Director, Stephanie Adams.

“Last year we saw a 60 percent increase in parks and trails activities and that’s due to COVID, and that’s going to continue to grow this year. And so, our idea was we’d come together on two days where we have different ambassadors leading the charge at different parks across the city.” 

It’s My Park Day projects are planned at More than 30 parks, including Ah-Nab-Awen, Briggs Park and Veterans park, just to name a few.

“We have over 30 parks that have been adopted by a park ambassador and then we’re also partnering in the West Side clean up as well, taking place on Saturday. So over half of our parks will be activated. But if you don’t find a park that’s on the list that you’re a neighbor of, please we want to encourage people to just get outside and clean up their park space, whatever is closest to them.”

Adams says safety is key and COVID-19 guidelines like wearing masks and social distancing will be in place.  Masks, hand sanitizer, gloves, and other safety equipment will be available for all volunteers.

You can find more information about volunteering and registering, at friendsofgrparks.org

Jennifer is an award winning broadcast news journalist with more than two decades of professional television news experience including the nation's fifth largest news market. She's worked as both news reporter and news anchor for television and radio in markets from Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo all the way to San Francisco, California.