City of Providence 2020 Providence Earth Day Spring Cleaning

Participate in 2020 Providence Earth Day Spring Cleaning!

Thank you for your interest in participating in Mayor Jorge O. Elorza’s 8th Annual Providence Earth Day Spring Cleaning, in observance of Earth Day!

Place: Parks, Recreation Centers, school gardens and other open spaces
Date: Saturday, April 25th
Time: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM (unless otherwise specified)

Volunteers will participate in a number of projects, from planting trees and beautifying parks to collecting and clearing litter and debris.

*Registration is required by Wednesday, April 19.

If you have questions about individual cleanups, we can put you in touch with the coordinator for that specific site. Please email CClausen@providenceri.gov with any special requests.

If you would like to register as a group, please email Christy Clausen – cclausen@providenceri.gov no later than April 13.

Tips:

Important Volunteer Information:

Clothing – wear appropriate clothing for the weather, we recommend dressing in layers.
Water – Bottled water will not be available, we recommend bringing your own re-usable water container.
Sun and bug protection
Tools – Volunteers are encouraged to bring their own tools clearly labeled with name if possible.
Volunteer Perks – Your site coordinator will a Volunteer ID for you to wear with pride during and after your cleanup. Local businesses and cultural institutions have generously donated volunteer perks for the weekend of the event. Just show your ID at participating venues!

Providence Parks Finder

Earth Day Locations + Cleanup Descriptions

Fox Point Neighborhood Association – FPNA has had a long and close relationship with Vartan Gregorian School. For over 10 years, FPNA has held monthly meetings in the community room/library of the school, a site that functioned for decades as the Fox Point bathhouse until its renovation in the early 2000s. Also during the last ten years, FPNA has re-vamped and maintained the landscaping of the bathhouse-library. During our Earth Day cleanup in 2019, we pruned and weeded the north and east sides of the building, which had become quite overgrown. Join us as we continue this work for Earth Day 2020. We made excellent strides last year, but there is still a lot of work to be done. The landscaping outside the bathhouse needs to be pruned, raked and weeded, and the beds on the east side of the building need to be raked and cut back. This job can be accomplished with 6-10 neighbors over the course of a few hours.

Friends of Joslin Park @ Joslin Community Garden – We will be doing an Orchard clean up, removing trash, adding compost, and seeding wildflowers. We will also be weeding, pruning elderberries, mulching, and edging the Orchard. We will host and promote a downtown neighborhood clean up once again this year! Our events typically run from 9 am to 1 pm.

Columbia Park – The Columbia Park Clean-Up event will include 1) A major clean-up of the entire park with the particular focus of the upper areas along Vermont Avenue and along the fence. 2) Planting will take place of flowering plants; 3) A planting of several trees; 4) Craft projects for kids focused on park amenities with sustainability being the theme. Planning for a community garden will also begin, participants, will begin place-making activities in identifying their vision of a community garden.

Ward 3 Clean-Up – Come join us in the 3rd Ward for our annual community Earth Day festivities! Meet at Billy Taylor Park for Kick-off and cleanup – 9:15 Am-9:30 AM for deployment to Park Clean-ups and surrounding areas: Billy Taylor Park (Camp St. & Cypress St.), Collyer Street Park (Collyer St. & Cemetery St., Concord St.), MLK Park (Camp St., Carrington Ave., Howell St.), Pleasant Street Park (Pleasant St. & N. Main St.) Clean-up Activities: Trash Pick-up, spreading mulch in sharing garden, mini orchard, tree wells and ornamental garden by the playground. Planting marigolds and nasturtium in tree wells.

Friends of North Burial Ground and Randall Park adjacent to North Burial Ground – We will be weeding the very tenacious existing weeds and preparing the soil to double or triple the size of the successful native plant/pollinator garden we began last year.

College Hill Neighborhood Association – The Prospect Terrace work will include general trash and debris clean-up in the park both upper and lower levels and the adjacent Paper street. Rusty areas (backside) of the retaining wall fence will be painted. Mulch will be spread in the upper portion of the Paper street. The Hope-Thayer traffic island work will include trash and debris clean-up, weeding and then spreading of mulch.

John Hope Settlement House Playground – John Hope Settlement House will host students, families, community members, and partnering organizations to help in the beautification of the John Hope Community Park. Participants will be cleaning the exterior of the park which includes trash pick-up and removal, cutting and trimming of grass, trees, and shrubs. The parking lot will be repainted with an Eco-friendly environmentally safe paint. We will be redeveloping the community garden and planting other flowers throughout the area.

Dexter Training Grounds – This year through the WBNA, neighbors will be building and installing a dragon in the playground at Dexter Training Grounds. The concept and design all came from neighborhood children who helped make the “dragon” out of refrigerator boxes at last year’s Earth Day event. This concept was fined tuned by WBNAs Tot Lot Committee and the Parks Department and will be completed on Earth Day!

Summit Neighborhood Association – Kerry Kohring Park, Summit Ave & 9th St, Providence – The Kerry Kohring Park Earth Day event will be a combination of work and play for neighbors of all ages in our community. Members of the Community Garden and the Summit Neighborhood Association will prepare the garden for spring planting and also provide engaging, creative activities that will educate young children about composting and planting and growing their own food. Activities planned for the day include seed planting for kids (in take-home pots); introduction to composting with the new garden compost system; planting in communal garden spaces (for kids and adults); and spreading of wood chips around the garden beds.

Pump Track at Roger Williams Park – Each Earth Day a group of volunteers begins the process of rebuilding the public bicycle dirt jumps and pump track after they’ve been worn down by the winter weather. It takes all day and a lot of dedicated BMX riders to get the park rideable again. We are excited to have the community support behind this for the fifth season.

Wanskuck Library at 233 Veazie Street – Wanskuck Library would like to conduct a community cleanup of the Library grounds, adults will plant perennials with the youth for a teaching opportunity, the event will conclude with free outdoor yoga instruction. The plantings will be in the 2 large flower boxes at the front entrance, beautifying the front yard area, and near the 3 dumpsters in order to soften the ugliness of the dumpster area. Compost will be used to replenish nutrients to the areas designated for planting.

Wayland Square Neighborhood Association – Witherby Park – Focus will be on cleaning up Wayland Square area and Witherby Park.

Blackstone Park – Seekonk shoreline from Gulf Avenue to the Henderson Bridge, Pick-up trash in York Pond area, Repair trails–fencing, spreading chips, addressing erosion

Waterman Street Dog Park – The Waterman Street Dog Park Association will oversee the annual spring cleanup of the dog park on April 25th. Such cleanup activities include spreading fresh woodchips along the trails leading through the park, and various open areas that have suffered through the winter months. In addition, litter cleanup will occur outside the perimeters of the park and inside the park to ensure the general attractiveness of the dog park site.

India Point Park – This is India Point Park’s largest cleanup of the year involving as many community members and park lovers as we can recruit! we’ll clean up beds and mulch some to get them ready for new planting.

Brown Street Park at the corner of Brown St and Creighton St – We will have a Super Hero Zero Trash: Dress as your favorite superhero or superheroine! We will celebrate spring, clean up our playground, plant some new plants along the fence, and paint our little free library.

Morris Avenue Tot Lot – In light of the fact that the Parks Department is preparing a major renovation to the park, our efforts will be focused on basic cleanup, Earth Day education, community building, and perhaps the planting of some berry bushes or other landscaping.

Cranston tot lot 60-120 Cranston St – As My HomeCourt will be working on our next court project at the Cranston Tot Lot, we would like to host a cleanup day that also introduces our organization to the surrounding community. We will be cleaning up the tot lot and sharing information and plans for the next court and will provide food and drink to celebrate. We will tidy up the lot and in consultation with Parks for any other needs including planting, weeding, picking up litter and leaves, and necessary touch-ups.

Neutaconkanut Hill Conservancy – NHC goal this Earth Day is the painting of the guard rails surrounding the park on top of the hill. We will also pick up litter on the trails and on Plainfield Street where the Park runs along. We will tackle erosion problems around the WPA path and other problem areas. We will lay wood chips on the trails.

Peace and Plenty Park – We will be doing a Spring Care Day at the park and its environs. This will include litter control, raking, weeding, mulching, planting flowers, painting the pergola and general sprucing up as is needed at the time.

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