Clean & Green, Pensacola’s Keep America Beautiful local affiliate, has teamed up with Escambia County Parks and Recreation to initiate an Adopt-A-Park program. The program will allow groups, organizations, schools, and neighborhood associations to adopt an Escambia County Park through Clean & Green. By adopting a park, sponsors agree to visit the selected park at least once a month to collect litter and debris. Groups will also be requested to annually host a one day beautification/cleanup event during the Great American Cleanup which runs from March 1 through May 31.
Clean & Green proudly recognizes Pensacola’s Naval Air Station local chapter of Coalition of Services Against Destructive Decisions (CSADD) as the first Adopt-A-Park sponsor; adopting Lexington Terrace Park, 700 S. Old Corry Field Rd in Warrington. Program organizers, ABH2 Kinia Guice and EM2 Larry Douglas tell us that the local chapter was established in January 2010, as “a peer to peer mentoring organization.” The organization recently sponsored a 5k Shamrock Run and also plans a wellness expo later this month. Community involvement is a key aspect of both CSADD and Clean & Green. The adopt a park program brings both organizations together to improve on the park’s cleanliness and appearance; hopefully, inspiring ownership of park and more community involvement. The first clean up event at Lexington Terrace Park will kick-off Friday, April 13 at 9:00 a.m.
County Parks representive, Mike Lively, said, “It’s a challenge to keep up with 102 neighborhood parks with only a park maintenance staff of 12. We cover an area from Perdido Key to Century.” Gwinn Corley, Clean & Green Executive Director, and Mike would like to see more groups come forward to adopt other parks in the county. Jill Cleaver, Executive Assistant at Clean & Green said,“Getting groups engaged and involved, from businesses to individuals is necessary to keep our parks maintained and inviting.”
Clean & Green is dedicated to maintaining a permanent community cleanup and beautification program. They have three core focus areas: litter prevention, recycling and waste reduction, and beautification and community greening. As the local affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, Clean & Green can access the national and local community improvement grants available to support the Adopt A Park sponsors and park beautification efforts. So step forward and take ownership of your local county parks. Readers can get more information, by calling 438-1178 or visit www.cleanandgreen.org.
