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On Tuesday my friend Karen and I traveled to Waveland Ms to be a part of the kickoff for the Great American Cleanup of 2009. This is a project funded and sponsored by Keep America Beautiful. We have both volunteered with this group before in local projects, but this was our first time to be part of a large national kickoff. As usual, I took way too many pictures, and trying to decide which ones to post is always hard! So, I will try to do a part 2 tomorrow so this post won't be so long.
Karen and I on the beach in Waveland before the opening ceremony. There were over 1,000 volunteers here...we met people from Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Washington State just to name a few! Plus, there were many local residents out pitching in and helping too!
Some of the youngest volunteers modeling the T Shirts we all received.
Count down to the Kickoff...you can see the National Director of the Great American Cleanup leading the countdown from the stage.
There were 5 sites in Waveland that were selected to be the focus of the cleanup. The site Karen and I picked to work at was a playground about 3 or 4 blocks from the beach.
It was close enough to walk and along the way the devastation of Katrina is still very evident in the photos I took.
On the walk to the playground, we passed the former City Hall of Waveland. They do have plans to rebuild this in the same spot. Part of the mosaic wall is about the only thing left, and a parking sign.
We assume this is what was left of a bank...just the vault is left standing.
This sign was especially meaningful for me since I well remember when Hurricane Camille hit Mississippi in August of 1969.
Finally, we made it to the Gex playground which was first built in January of 2006, a few months after Katrina. The playground did have a nice equipment, but was in great need of a cleanup and beautification. 
There were big piles of debris and trash all throughout the playground. Here Karen is sitting on the ground filling up the many garbage bags of trash, etc. that we took to the dumpsters.
And here we are with the "Survivor Bunny"- a name given to a stuffed animal that was unearthed during the cleanup. Of course we don't know the story of the bunny or who it belonged to...but none of the volunteers wanted it to be thrown away! So he became a mascot of sorts for the playground project.
Please visit tomorrow for Part II of the Great American Cleanup in Waveland, MS.
Thanks for stopping by today!
13 hours ago
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