Great American Cleanup Part 2

Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast community of Waveland in August of 2005. Although tremendous progress has been made, there is still much to be done. You may click here to see some photos of the damage done in Waveland.

As I wrote in the post yesterday, Karen and I spent most of our time at the Great American Cleanup in Waveland at the Gex playground working on cleanup and beautification of the premises. We got started around 9:30, took a break for lunch, and worked in the afternoon until almost 5 pm! We were so tired at the end of the day-but it was a good kind of tired!In addition to cleaning up trash and debris from the playground, we helped with lots of other projects throughout the day.

These pictures show a little of what we spent our time doing. We helped other volunteers cover the dirt in the playground area with mulch.We helped build a brand new gazebo by holding ladders, boards, and nails for those hammering.

We filled the planters in the gazebo with soil and flowers.
We helped lay stepping stones made by area school children by filling in around the stones with soil.

And, most importantly-we made lots of new friends as we worked with others such as these two young men from the Gulf Coast. In this picture they had just uncovered the Survivor Bunny from a pile of debris.

They placed the rabbit on this stump as an encouragement for us all...and soon he was decorated with his own set of Mardi Graz beads also found on the playground.
Other groups that worked with the cleanup project went around and gathered trash and debris from the streets of Waveland. You can click here to read about some unusual objects that have been found on clean up days in the past.
Wouldn't it be handy to have one of these machines the next time you wanted to plant a tree?
These palm trees were planted at the Veterans Memorial on the beach with the help of the machine. In addition sod, shrubs and flowers were added. Before the day was over, a fountain, which had been damaged by Katrina, was working once again!

I could go on and on with pictures and stories of our day, but I think you get the general idea. We really enjoyed being part of a group of volunteers that made a big difference in a short amount of time. This is only because everyone was working together and doing whatever they were capable of doing. It left us with a sense of satisfaction to actually see a project completed.

If you are interested in finding out more about Keep America Beautiful and what you can do in your area, click here. Then find your state and you should see a list of contact people and events near you.

There are two more Great American Cleanup national events planned-one in New York City on April 22 (wouldn't that be fun!!!), and one in Nashville Tennessee on May 14th.

Thanks for stopping by for part 2!