Cleanup at heart of Friends of Parks Day

Cape Girardeau's popular Friends of the Parks Day annual event set for this Saturday will highlight a push from the city's beautification committee to expand cleanup efforts citywide.

Teams of volunteers will be dispatched from Capaha Park as in years past to clean parks and other city facilities, but members of Keep Cape Girardeau Beautiful are hopeful there also will be volunteers to send to neighborhoods and other areas that need litter pick up, weeding or plantings, removal of graffiti and other beautification efforts.

The beautification committee reformed last July as a member of Keep America Beautiful, a national not-for-profit organization that promotes clean public places, waste reduction and recycling and environmental education.

Parks and recreation director Julia Thompson, a member of Cape Girardeau's committee, said the group has since been forming short and long term goals for beautifying the city. A plea to improve upkeep and cleanliness in Cape Girardeau is one Thompson said she originally heard from Mayor Harry Rediger and Councilwoman Loretta Schneider when she came to Cape Girardeau in 2011.

An addition to the long-running Friends of the Parks Day will start this weekend when the committee also promotes its new event known as the Great Cape Cleanup.

"This was just a perfect opportunity for us to join with the parks for Friends of the Parks Day because they've been so successful with it," Schneider said.

Schneider, who is the city council's liaison to the committee, also has come up with a motto for the committee's efforts and the event, which is "If you care, do your share."

The parks and recreation department, Girardeau Goes Green Advisory Board and the Missouri Department of Conservation also are involved with the Great Cape Cleanup event.

Several hundred people are already signed up to participate in Friends of the Parks Day, but Thompson said the goal for this year and in the next few years is to get at least 1,000 people and 100 groups to participate.

Thompson also said the beautification committee is planning other cleanup events for later this year, including attempting to include Southeast Missouri State University students in a fall cleanup event on and around campus.

Long-term goals of the committee are to improve the city's "entryway" points, such as areas near the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge and Interstate 55 entrances so as to give incoming visitors a positive perspective of the city, and to expand litter prevention education into local schools. Graffiti cleanup and prevention also are targets.

The committee is in talks with the police department and downtown liaisons about how to best handle graffiti, Thompson said.

Schneider said the group also is pushing a stricter property nuisance ordinance, a proposal for which she said could make its way before city council sometime soon.

Anyone who would like to participate in Friends of the Parks Day and the Great Cape Cleanup may call the parks and recreation department at 339-6340 or email parks@cityofcape.org.

The events will organize at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at Capaha Park and activities are planned to end by noon. Free T-shirts will be available and lunch will be served.

eragan@semissourian.com

388-3627

Pertinent address:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, MO

Broadway and West End Boulevard, Cape Girardeau, MO