When driving through Southbridge this past weekend or earlier this week, did you notice how clean the sidewalks and edges of the roads were? How about the parks? Did you notice dozens of full yellow trash bags along your route? Well, those were filled by the 135 volunteers that came out last week and this past Saturday bright and early to help kick off Beautify Southbridge, an Earth Day event. From 8.30am until 12noon on April 21st volunteers registered at the Southbridge Town Hall on Elm Street and either volunteered to clean up a street or area they saw needed it or they asked what area they could help with. Staff from the Town Hall had already determined what areas of Southbridge had the most need.
The Center of Hope Foundation, Inc. partnered with the Southbridge Town Hall again this year to help organize and run this local community event. This event was funded in part by The Last Green Valley. Yard gloves, grabbers, small bottles of hand sanitizer, beverages and snacks were all able to be purchased for this event so the volunteers were fully prepared and ready to take on the large task of cleaning up the streets.
In addition to The Last Green Valley, other local businesses donated items for Beautify Southbridge.
The list of items that were collected during the Beautify Southbridge event: 211 trash bags, 16 tires, 3 televisions, 6 syringes (that the health department safely handled and disposed of), 5 pieces of furniture, 50 plus in car parts, 2 dead animals, and 1 flux capacitor (yes, we are not kidding!).
And the numbers of volunteers involved in this event continues to grow! In 2015 there were 49 registered volunteers, in 2016 there were 55, in 2017 there were 77, and in 2018 there were 135. With this event continuing to grow every year, we would like to extend a HUGE thank you to our committed volunteers (some return every year), and The Last Green Valley, Dunkin Donuts on East Main Street, Southbridge Hotel & Conference Center, Veolia Water, Big Bunny, and Kids Zone in Oxford. This could not have been a success without these dedicated folks…we truly appreciate all your efforts and hope you will participate with us again next year!
