The City of Annapolis along with Annapolis Green and local neighborhood associations are coming together to clean up the City’s neighborhoods on Sunday, February 23rd.
Have a Heart, Do Your Part! is a one-hour neighborhood cleanup designed to evoke pride of place and connect neighbor-to-neighbor for the greater good
Just after Valentine’s Day and playing on the City’s Economic Development Department’s theme of #LoveAnnapolis, this initiative will call upon community and business groups to join together for a fun, fast and effective litter pickup and community cleanup. This will take place in the public spaces of our own neighborhoods – capturing litter and debris on land before it hits area waterways.
Patterned after the successful Eastport Civic Association’s NeatStreets, the cleanup is designed to establish a framework that people in all parts of the city can adjust to suit their own neighborhoods to keep its spirit going beyond this one day. With a group of people, a lot can be accomplished in a short period of time.
“When you work together like this to make your own neighborhoods beautiful, it gives you a sense of accomplishment,” said John ‘Bumper’ Moyer, head of Eastport’s NeatStreets. “In NeatStreets I’ve seen people just light up knowing that they’ve given an hour of their time to really make a difference.”
This initiative will add a powerful third prong to two established programs: Project Clean Stream(shoreline trash pickups along Chesapeake Bay tributaries organized by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay in the spring) and GreenScape (a bi-annual, City-sponsored event in fall and spring through which residents refresh and replant public spaces with native plants).
“We can all do our part to keep Annapolis beautiful,” said Acting Mayor Rhonda Pindell Charles.
Have a Heart, Do Your Part is funded by a Clean Up & Green Up Maryland Grant from the Keep Maryland Beautiful Grants Program obtained by local nonprofit Annapolis Green.
The goal is to enlist 10 or more civic and business organizations throughout the City to express and promote Pride of Place. Annapolis Green, in consultation with Moyer, will coordinate the event.
Annapolis Green and the Eastport NeatStreets crew will provide bags and gloves. Some brooms, shovels and rakes will be available, however, each group is encouraged to bring its own equipment based on the chosen site. (Snow shovels are great for picking up litter.)
On the day of the event, each group will work for at least one hour in its designated area to pick up litter, sweep or rake, as needed. Recyclables are to be separated from other types of trash.
Team leader responsibilities:
- Designate one block for the February 23 one-day, one-hour cleanup and report the location to Annapolis Green
- Take before and after photos of the designated block; social media posts are encouraged with the hashtag # loveannapoliscleanup
- Recruit neighborhood volunteers
- Count the number of bags of recyclables and landfill trash picked up to report in at the celebration. (Neighbors are encouraged to parse out the bags of litter and put it in their curbside pickup.)
The goal is not only to cleanup one block but to start a network of community-minded residents who will continue the program in the spring and summer and beyond thus building pride of place, getting to know neighbors, and having fun.
To celebrate the accomplishment of this one-day, one-hour work, everyone is invited to the Annapolis Market House starting at 4 p.m. for special discounts on food and drink, prizes, and live music.
A “leader board” will be posted with the number of bags of litter collected by area.
Organizations interested in participating should contact Annapolis Green at [email protected].
