Neighborhood Improvement Project Seeks Volunteers for This Month’s Project

By Jeremy Coumbes on August 24, 2022 at 2:40pm

A Jacksonville volunteer project aimed at helping to clean up neighborhoods has been a big success this summer season as another project is set for this upcoming weekend.

The Jacksonville Neighborhood Improvement Project is again being held this Saturday. Ward 2 Alderwoman Lori Large-Oldenettel says this time around, volunteers will be meeting on Hardin Avenue to give a fellow neighbor a helping hand.

It’s going to be primarily a brush and debris removal. We would love to have between 25 and 30 volunteers show up at this event, and if we get that many we should be out of there between 10:00 and 10:30”.

Cool weather makes it a lot easier but we will have plenty of water there for all of our volunteers. We do encourage any volunteer who wants to participate to wear long pants and bring a tool they are comfortable with in working in the yard. Whether that be a rake or a weed eater or hedge trimmers or snips, just bring whatever tool you feel most comfortable with.”

Oldenettel says organizers of the Neighborhood Improvement Projects have been blown away by the support the community has shown to the project in volunteering each month.

It looks like over the past five events we’ve had over one hundred different volunteers, so I think that’s pretty remarkable. A lot of volunteers come every month but we always welcome new faces, and in fact last month, over half of the volunteers that showed up were new faces that we hadn’t seen previously.

We only have one more event, we will do this one in August and then have one more in September. Then we will reevaluate and see if it is something that the group wants to continue to keep doing next year. The one thing I would mention is the success of these events is only due to the volunteers who are showing up each week to improve Jacksonville, and our neighborhoods and our community.”

Volunteers attending this month’s project are asked to park on the east side of Hardin to allow trucks and trailers for brush removal to park on the west side. Oldenettel says even if someone can’t make it until later in the morning, all are welcome and the help is very much appreciated.

The August Neighborhood Improvement Project is this Saturday at 869 Hardin Avenue, from 8:00 till approximately 10:30 am. Anyone with questions can call Ward 2 alderwoman Lori Large-Oldenettel at 217-370-4597.