Volunteers Join with City for Day of Service

More than 1,000 volunteers are expected to turn out April 26th for the Sixth Annual Day of Service, sponsored by the City of Redlands, the Redlands Service Club Council and Mormon Helping Hands, but there’s still need for more volunteers. This year volunteers will be working on community projects in four separate areas and, for the first time, expanding to the City of Highland. Volunteers will spread out weeding, planting, mulching, painting and repairing at Heritage Park on Orange Avenue, between Nevada and Iowa streets, the site of last year’s massive volunteer effort; Israel Beal Park, on River View Drive, south of the Santa Ana River Wash and west of Orange Street; the east end of Redlands Boulevard, along the median and the roadside; and Highland Community Park in Highland. The Volunteer Day of Service has become an annual event, after the stunning success of past years. Planning takes nearly a year with the City and the Redlands Service Club Council in partnership with Mormon Helping Hands. Along the two-mile stretch of Redlands Boulevard, volunteers will clean up and replace plants in the median, plant trees, mulch the median and shoulders and pick up trash. The City prepared for the project more than a week ago, contracting to trim all the trees along the stretch of road. At Israel Beal Park volunteers will remove weeds and tree stumps and replant areas of the park. At Heritage Park, volunteers have already begun working on irrigation in preparation for Saturday’s efforts, which will add concrete borders and decomposed granite in picnic areas and lay 20,000 square feet of sod. At Highland Community Park volunteers will replace the baseball infield, repair and repaint backstops and repair trash receptacles. The Redlands Service Club Council was formed in 2008 to offer assistance to the City through cooperative work projects and capital improvements. Working with the City’s Quality of Life Department, the Service Club Council made renovation of Sylvan Park its first major project for 2009. Since then the Service Club Council and Mormon Helping Hands have taken on increasingly ambitious projects at Prospect Park, the Redlands Bowl, landscaping the Redlands Boulevard median, and last year, creating an entire park in a day at Heritage Park. Individuals, families, community groups, businesses and other organizations are encouraged to participate in the workday. For information or to sign up, visit www.redlandsservice.org or contact City of Redlands Volunteer Services Coordinator Elizabeth Marin at (909) 798-7540.