On Saturday, September 13th, a dedicated group of Green River citizens took steps to beautify their community. This all-ages task force tackled several projects including weeding two prominent Main Street properties and re-painting Green River park bathrooms, all in time for Green River’s annual Melon Days Festival. Several citizens in Green River have expressed dissatisfaction with the way certain properties on Main Street look, especially for Green River’s most popular weekend, and this group decided to do something about it. Volunteers spent the morning sprucing up selected sites and they all agree the clean-up effort went very well, but would have liked to have seen more citizens involved. According to volunteer Jolene Dalton, “It was awesome. But, the more that help, the more that can be done. Many hands make light work… think of what a whole community could do as a group?”
According to volunteers, this is the first of many such projects to come. City Councilwoman, Kathy Ryan, said the aim of future projects is to “help the community buy into having pride in our town, make it a more appealing place for the traveling public, and have new visitors to town think ‘Wow, what a clean and tidy little town!’”. The group hopes to soon increase its numbers, help inject enthusiasm in Green River’s improvement efforts, and show that real and visible community improvement projects are happening.
The difference the volunteers made during the clean-up was certainly visible and will hopefully attract passionate residents like themselves to future Green River beautification efforts. Dalton exclaimed “I walked by the clean-up site the following morning and noticed what an improvement there was! We’re rural and proud and need to help up our community. I’m proud to be in Green River and I’m glad to help.”
Local citizens Cheri Packer, Jackie Nelson, Kathy Ryan, and Chris Lezama planned the day’s projects and would like to thank all those who came to help out!