Clearwater Parks and Recreation has seen a jump in service projects for the month of March. With the Lenten season under way local church groups are branching out into the community to offer their service. The Parks and Recreation Department alone will host 12 projects within a two-week period and expects another large-scale day of service on April 1.
The week began with a Sunday project by Temple B’Nai Israel. March 19 marks their day of service for 2006. After a morning service and pizza lunch church members branched throughout Pinellas County. To serve Clearwater a group of 15 volunteers arrived at the new McMullen Overpass and followed the Clearwater East-West Trail to Cliff Stephens Park. The group collected trash and debris along the way and made a great impact on maintaining the beauty of this trail system. As an annual event with constantly increasing participation, Temple B’Nai Israel hopes to expand their number of projects within Clearwater in years to come.
The week will continue with Calvary Christian High School sending out small groups of students throughout the Parks and Recreation system all week long. The school groups plan to visit Lake Chautauqua to assist in mulching the newly cleared trail system, Pier 60 at Clearwater Beach to help clean up after Spring Breakers and shift constantly moving sand and Moccasin Lake Nature Park to spend four days removing non-native plant species that harm our natural ecosystem.
Indian Rocks Christian School also plans to visit Pier 60 this week for sand shifting and constant trash removal. The schools allow their students to get out of school for the day in order to lend a hand in their community. All student groups are chaperoned by school instructors and volunteer for a six-hour time frame. The City of Clearwater provides staff for all projects to maintain safety, provide needed tools and supplies and keep the volunteers hydrated.
Other local, non-religious groups volunteering during this time frame include Keep Pinellas Beautiful, Home Shopping Network and St. Petersburg College Applied Ethics Institute. SPC will visit N.E. Coachman Park on Sunday, March 26 to perform the very first clean up related to Clearwater’s new Adopt-A-Park program. This program features park signage for the adopting organization in exchange for two service projects a year to improve the park.
This service project boom will culminate on Saturday, April 1 with a 100 - 150 person service day. First Baptist Indian Rocks will send church members to two different beach sites to help clean up the Memorial Causeway and Pier 60 areas. All of these groups and so many more who volunteer throughout the year provide an invaluable service to our community and are a major part of why Clearwater is a wonderful place to live, work and play.
If you would like more information on these upcoming projects, doing your own service project with the City of Clearwater or the Adopt-A-Park program please call 562-4803.