About 800 volunteers have signed up for Mansfield's fourth annual Keep Mansfield Beautiful cleanup day tomorrow, April 30, and selectmen are reminding everyone to be careful as they drive around town in the morning. Busy volunteers of all ages will be nearly everywhere, dressed in signature yellow shirts.
The event runs from 9 a.m. to noon, and winds up with a free picnic for all participants at the Comcast Center.
Keep Mansfield Beautiful president Neil Rhein sent a list of the many businesses and individuals who have helped sponsor the town-wide spring ritual, held each year around Earth Day. Teams from businesses, churches, organizations, scout troops and youth groups band together and fill hundreds of trash bags with the winter's trash - everything from paper to appliances and tires.
The teams work in specified areas of town, fanning out on almost all major streets, as well as smaller streets where the need is great.
During the first year, the organization and over a thousand helpers picked up more than five tons of litter and debris from town land and roadways.
The Mansfield chapter is part of the nationwide Keep America Beautiful organization that created the Great American Cleanup held between March 1 and May 31 across the nation.
The parent organization expects 3 million volunteers will participate in 30,000 community improvement activities and educational workshops in 17,000 communities nationwide this year.
For more information on the Keep Mansfield Beautiful and ways you can help throughout the year, see the organization's Web site.