“It is an annual day of service that we have had for technically the past six years, although last year we canceled due to COVID. So, this year, we’re back and at it,” said Carolyn Young, community health director at Mercy Health Springfield.
The annual cleanup day was originally started by one of the community partners two decades ago.
“Service day actually started in 2001, with Catholic Central, and then we started a communitywide service day in 2016. It’s been going strong since then,” she said.
The event is intended to be a community effort, by getting residents involved.
“Over 250 community members are signed up, plus several schools, like Emmanuel Christian and Catholic Central have their students signed up to participate. Several Springfield City schools are also doing several projects, in the area and at their school sites,” said Kara Van Zant, director of community impact at United Way of Clark, Champaign & Madison Counties.
Precautions are being taken in accordance with COVID-19 protocol for the service day.
“Because of COVID, we wanted to be respectful of our volunteers and of the sites, trying to keep everyone as safe as possible. Each site will have up to 10 people, and there will sometimes be multiple projects at a site. Most of them will be outdoors, doing cleanup projects, like picking up trash, planting flowerbeds, and so forth,” said Van Zant.
The webpage for the event contains a listing of the planned projects, as well as a place to register for participation.
“Anyone who hasn’t registered yet can do so on the United Way website. There’s also a little banner that says, ‘Clark County Service Day,’ and you can see all the projects there that we’re actively seeking volunteers for,” said Young.
Community partners include City of Springfield, Clark County, United Way, Keep Clark County Beautiful, Mercy Health, Community Health Foundation, Clark State Community College, The Chamber of Greater Springfield, The Nehemiah Foundation, Emmanuel Christian Academy, Catholic Central School, and Clark County Combined Health District.
For more information or to register, please visit https://uwccmc.galaxydigital.com/aem/general/event/?doc_id=6043.
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