Annual event will help clean up Cape Girardeau

Editor's note: The following column has been edited to reflect the correct phone number to register for the Friends of the Parks Day & the Great Cape Cleanup.

It certainly has been a very long winter with snow, wind and cold temperatures for many months. However, spring has now arrived and citizens are finally getting outside to begin preparing for the next six months of our always beautiful spring and summer.

Our April Friends of the Park Day has been an annual event for the past 27 years. This event is sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation Department and traditionally brings staff together with many resident volunteers to clean up and freshen all our many city parks.

We recently developed a Beautification Committee that has become energized and is actively developing strategies to assist in raising awareness of the importance of beautification within our city. Loretta Schneider is our council liaison to this committee.

This 28th annual event now has been expanded and is identified as Friends of the Parks Day & the Great Cape Cleanup. It will be from 8:30 a.m. to noon April 27. This expanded event is being hosted by the Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation Department, Keep Cape Beautiful Beautification Committee, Girardeau Goes Green Advisory Board and the Missouri Department of Conservation.

This group has an ambitious goal of enlisting 100 groups or businesses and 1,000 volunteers who will work that morning to clean and beautify our city. They are asking school groups, church organizations, service clubs and businesses respond to this call for cleanup.

Many things can be accomplished that day to help beautify Cape Girardeau including, but not limited to, planting trees and flowers, picking up litter, weeding, raking, mulching, trimming and painting.

I would encourage citizens to call the Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation Department to sign up your site and group or to get information about joining one of the park groups. You may call 339-6340 or email parks@cityofcape.org

This event is not intended to be a single day occurrence, but is designed to make citizens more aware of our beautification opportunities on a daily basis. As an example, I have observed a man several times who walks, getting his exercise, on Lexington Avenue and North Sprigg Street. He always is carrying a bag and picking up litter as he walks. I have never stopped but I plan to do so soon and thank him for his concern and effort toward keeping Cape Girardeau beautiful.

Thank you in advance for calling and participating in this important event and doing your part to make Cape Girardeau even more beautiful and improving our wonderful quality of life.

Harry E. Rediger is the mayor of Cape Girardeau.