The Vance County Appearance Commission and the Henderson Community Appearance Commission are seeking volunteers to assist with the fourth annual Henderson-Vance Spring Litter Sweep Clean-Up effort.
The event this year is being expanded for a week beginning Monday, April 16, and extending through Saturday, April 21. In past years, the event has focused on clean-up efforts for one day.
The local effort again is part of North Carolina’s Spring Litter Sweep scheduled for the last two weeks in April.
The focus of the week, April 16-21, is to get as much community participation as possible to clean up blighted areas of Henderson and Vance County and to improve their appearance. For the last three years, hundreds of volunteers have assisted. The volunteers have included local church groups, school groups, civic organizations, members of volunteer fire departments, community watch groups, businesses, families and individuals.
The appearance commissions are hoping to have the same volunteer involvement this spring.
For the Spring Litter Sweep Week, volunteers from throughout the community are being asked to clean up trash and debris from along streets and roadsides, in neighborhoods and subdivisions and around churches, schools and businesses.
The appearance commissions will make clean-up materials available to those who want to volunteer beginning Wednesday, April 11, by contacting Terri Hedrick, chairperson of the Vance County Appearance Commission, in the Vance County Schools’ Administrative Services Center at 1724 Graham Avenue in Henderson or by calling 492-2127, extension 2100. Volunteers will be given large orange trash bags, gloves and reflective vests to aid in their efforts. The clean-up materials also will be available at designated sites in Henderson and Vance County throughout the clean-up week. The specific locations will be announced soon.
Beginning at 8 a.m. on Saturday, April 21, volunteers also may receive clean-up supplies in the parking lot of Henderson’s City Operations Center on Beckford Drive, if they want to clean up during that morning.
Volunteers who receive supplies for the clean-up week also will be given tickets to attend a free hot dog lunch on Saturday, April 21, beginning at 11 a.m. at the City Operations Center on Beckford Drive. The lunch is being sponsored by the Wisdom for Life Ministry of Jason Brown, a Vance County native and now a star in the National Football League with the St. Louis Rams. Brown has sponsored the volunteer lunch for the local clean-up efforts during each of the four years.
Volunteers may clean up in areas they have designated as needing attention or clean-up organizers can suggest identified areas for them to focus on.
Anyone who is interested in participating in the Henderson-Vance Spring Litter Sweep Clean-Up Week is asked to contact Hedrick at 492-2127, extension 2100, or by email at thedrick@vcs.k12.nc.us.