VOLUNTEERS HELP OUT ON FRIENDS OF THE PARK DAY

Saturday was a perfect day for working in the yard, but about 250 residents spent the day cleaning and planting in Cape Girardeau parks instead.

Volunteers worked in 23 parks throughout the city as part of the annual Friends of the Parks Day. For more than 15 years, the event has been held to help prepare the city's parks for the summer.

Sunny skies and warm temperatures brought out a large number of volunteers Saturday between 9 a.m. and noon. As many as 500 people have participated in the past, but scheduling conflicts kept many people from helping this year.

"We had some groups that couldn't come today because we pushed the date back a week because of Easter and there were several other activities," said Dan Mueser, director of the parks and recreation department. "We also had some who couldn't come today, so they came earlier this week."

The clean-up project once focused only on Capaha Park, which is the city's largest with a public pool, playground and pond. But the project was expanded to include the whole city after the numbers of volunteers began to grow.

The majority of the volunteers stayed at Capaha Park to work. Some of their projects included planting flowers, adding mulch to the grounds and painting the pool.

"We have people working all over the city in our parks," Mueser said. "This will get us ready for the next three or four months when we have peak park usage."

Mueser said warm weather has brought people to city parks early this year. Families and community groups have already started reserving park shelters for summer activities and availability is becoming limited. Adult and children baseball and softball leagues will further limit shelter space.

Jamie Brejer and other members of Gamma Sigma Sigma sorority were among the volunteers painting Capaha Pool. Brejer doesn't consider herself an artist but said her efforts would withstand a season of pool use.

"I just thought it would be fun and exciting to help make the community look better," she said.

Volunteers receive their park assignments based on where they want to work, their experience and what needs to be done. People with a knack for painting might want to help with the pool, while gardeners choose to plant flowers. When families come out, they often choose activities based on the age of the children involved.

"Little kids like to plant flowers, but if we had to paint playground equipment, that would probably be done by older youth or adults," Mueser said. "It just kind of varies year to year what groups we have and what they want to do."

Mueser said the environment was a priority during the 1970s and 1980s, and people took pains to respect natural areas. That respect has lessened over the years.

"Picking up trash is kind of a never-ending job," he said. "We would like to encourage people to be friends of the park all year long instead of just for one day."