The largest day of community service in Athens County is about to get much, much bigger.
In past years, Athens Beautification Day has brought together close to 1,000 volunteers from Ohio University and the Athens community to work on more than 50 service projects over the course of the day, including landscaping, painting and trash cleanup. This year, however, the organization is expanding Athens Beautification to the whole month of April.
Students involved spoke to city council last week, saying the expansion is a way for Ohio University and the community to combat the climate crisis. Planned activities include tree planting, removal of invasive species and planting pollinator gardens.
Mayor Steve Patterson and the rest of the City Council are excited about the expansion. In fact, the city of Athens has already purchased 260 trees for volunteers to plant.
It’s also worth noting that Athens Beautification organizers are no strangers to change. In 2018, they held their first fall semester Beautification Day focused on “re-beautifying” Athens County elementary schools. They’ve also held zero waste events in the past.
Keep a lookout for more information about Athens Beautification Month, as well as other opportunities to give back to the community, on Ohio University’s list of service opportunities!
This is excellent. As an original founder of the Athens Beautification Day along with Mike Jones, Jordan Meyer, Kevin Ziegler and the Ohio University Men’s Water Polo Team in 2006 it’s awesome to see it continue to grow.