By Hannah E. Jones, Park Pride’s Marketing & Communications Manager
Love is definitely in the air this month – especially around our parks! This February, Atlantans have been coming together to give 12 Atlanta parks some TLC through Love Your Park.
Love Your Park is a city-wide volunteer initiative held in partnership with the City of Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) and Park Pride. This is the inaugural year, with hopes of making this an annual initiative.
Over the course of the month, volunteers went to a dozen neighborhood parks – one in each council district – to put in some elbow grease. Volunteers helped with trail maintenance, invasive plant management, litter clean-up and other restoration and beautification efforts.
Park Pride and DPR are the conveners for Love Your Park, but the Friends of the Park groups and partner organizations are the champions who make this work happen. Our teams are proud to empower residents to take care of their local parks and engage the community for the greater good.
“Park Pride truly appreciates the dozen local partners who stepped up to be a part of the first-ever Love Your Park citywide cleanup,” said Michael Halicki, executive director at Park Pride. “We love our Friends of the Park groups! You make our parks shine!”
“The Love Your Park volunteer month initiative is a great way to bring communities together to not only engage with each other but to also share in the stewardship of keeping our parks beautiful!” DPR Commissioner Justin Cutler said. “We are grateful for the partnership we share with Park Pride. Together, we are working to build an equitable world-class parks system that our neighbors and visitors will enjoy for generations.”
The idea to engage residents in service projects on a city-wide level came from a Greenspace Advisory Council meeting with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. This is a group of about a dozen organizations, including Park Pride, that meets quarterly with Mayor Dickens.
“I spent a lot of time in my neighborhood parks growing up on the westside of Atlanta in Adamsville, and my community parks provided a safe harbor for me and my friends,” Mayor Dickens said. “I want to shout out the community volunteers who are here, who spend untold hours working to make parks and greenspaces across the City of Atlanta better for all of us. All the volunteers that go into this, that is where the magic happens – when people take ownership of it.”
While Love Your Park has wrapped up, we’re not slowing down on our volunteer efforts! We’re hosting an Earth Day Volunteer Event at Herbert Greene Nature Preserve on Saturday, April 20. From 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., volunteers will help remove litter, clear trails and remove fallen limbs. Everyone is welcome!
Spring is the season of service, and Park Pride has a robust volunteer program, with both corporate and individual opportunities. Additionally, many Friends of the Park groups host regular volunteer days to sustain long-lasting, positive change in the neighborhood parks. There are several volunteer events on the docket for this spring — including a clean-up day at Pea Ridge Park and garden restoration at Springbrook Park — which can be found on Hands On Atlanta.
Park Pride also offers custom, private volunteer experiences, an option available to corporate supporters. After selecting a date and location for the volunteer event, Park Pride handles all event logistics so your business can focus on staff recruitment. This is a great opportunity for team building!
There are also many great outdoor activities and events coming up that are hosted by local partners, click here to check them out! We hope to see you in a park this spring!
