Beautify Londonderry held its first planning meeting of the year, with new leadership and a few new members.
The group was almost suspended due to a lack of volunteers, but residents stepped up to ensure the Town’s annual spring cleaning campaign will go on.
Londonderry’s 2016 “Roadside Pride” campaign will kick off on April 23 and run through May 29.
Beautify Londonderry will put together bags with gloves for trash collection and other materials volunteers may need to complete their project.
Volunteers may schedule projects for any time during the five-week Town-wide clean-up campaign.
Projects may range from collecting litter along the road to landscaping town and school properties, laying mulch, weeding and planting flowers. Beautify Londonderry provides the flowers, mulch, gloves and equipment people need to complete their project.
“This program is about the volunteers and the Londonderry environment,” said Paul Margolin, chairman of the Solid Waste and Environmental Committee. “Beautify Londonderry is not an adjunct to the Department of Public Works or to redirect School District employees; we’re here to encourage and propel people who would like to do something nice outdoors and make something look nicer.”
Volunteers should call ahead to inform Beautify Londonderry of the number of people in their group, where they will be working and what they plan to do.
Former chairman Kerri Stanley and other veteran members said rallying community groups to take on projects on the weekends of the campaign has been challenging in recent years.
“We had 800 to 1,000 volunteers from all different groups when we got started out there,” Margolin said. “In more recent years we’ve seen more in the 300- to 400-person range. We’d like to keep that going at least this year and build it up.
“It’s been really hard getting a lot of these groups,” Stanley said. “We used to have a lot of Boy and Girl Scout groups, but it has really dropped off in the last few years. You do have some groups interested and ready to go, it’s just a matter of coordinating them.” Stanley said many high school-aged youth in town are looking for projects to complete required volunteer hours.
In addition to seeking volunteers for projects during the weeks of the clean-up campaign, Beautify Londonderry hopes to secure donations of supplies and monetary donations from local businesses – specifically, members said they are in need of mulch for landscaping projects.
Beautify Londonderry is also hoping to increase its membership and encourages residents who want to get involved to attend the group’s next meeting on April 5 at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.
For more information or to sign up for a clean-up project, contact Chairman Mike Byerly by email at Beautifylondonderry@londonderrynh.org or by phone at 537-9551.
Volunteers should also check Beautify Londonderry’s page on the Town website at www.londonderrynh.org for updates.