Do Good. Have Fun.
We did. We did.
Last Saturday some 70 volunteers showed up at the Ellen O. Moyer Back Creek Nature Park for a big clean-up and refresh organized by Annapolis Green and sponsored by Bud Light with Keep America Beautiful.
In the morning we assigned them jobs that had been coordinated with the city's Recreation and Parks department. We planted dozens of plants, we scrubbed the features in the park including signs and wooden steps and picnic tables. We picked up litter. We hammered down protruding nails. We cut back overgrown invasive species. We screwed down dangerously loose planks on the pier. And we spread pile after pile of woodchips along the trails.
You've heard of "it takes a village," well, we had that village. People as far away at Waldorf came to volunteer and others from just a few blocks away.
In addition to the main sponsorship from Bud Light, local organizations stepped up to help make it a success, largely at their own expense.
- Chesapeake Bay Roasting Company provided morning coffee.
- WRNR radio provided great music to help pump everybody up through the early morning rain.
- MOM's Organic Market in Bowie provided snacks.
- Garden Girls provided landscaping advice and purchased the plants for us at a discount.
- The Spa Creek Conservancy provided tools like shovels and rakes.
- Annapolis Community Boating provided kayaks for litter patrol from the water side and loads of support.
- Port Annapolis Marina provided its beautiful and very valuable pavilion space for our after-party.
- Chesapeake Bayhawks were well represented, volunteering, giving back to the community also.
The generally agreed upon value of a volunteer hour in Maryland is about $25.50. That is the figure used by many philanthropic organizations. Using that number, times three hours, times 70 volunteers, the total value of the volunteer labor donated to the city was $5355. Add to that about $1000 worth of plants.
A lot of people talked about making this an annual event and we just might. Thank you to everybody who worked so hard doing good and later, having fun.
Click on the button below to learn more and see some photos of the day.