Spring Cleaning with Keep Bartow Beautiful

The month of April is upon us. April means spring, and spring, for a great many, means spring cleaning. For Cartersville and Bartow County, spring cleaning means Keep Bartow Beautiful Month.

Keep Bartow Beautiful has been operating since 2000. As the name suggests, it's a cooperative effort on the part of the cities of Bartow County to clean up trash, plant new trees and perform other forms of public service to better beautify said cities.

Keep Bartow Beautiful's part of the Great American Cleanup will begin April 2 at with the Gene Thacker Mermorial Cleanup.

The campaign hits Atco on Saturday, April 16, with two rummage sales, one specializing in electronics, as well as a Ball Park Recycle and the Community Cleanup.

While Keep Bartow Beautiful as a whole draws much participation, the Cartersville Cleanup has seen relatively small turnouts over the years. According to Sheri Henshaw, coordinator of Keep Bartow Beautiful, Cartersville is among the cities that draw fewer volunteers.

"It's not been as big as we would have liked," she said. "We'd love to have 50 or more [volunteers]. That's generally what we have at most of the smaller community cleanups."

Richard Osborn, coordinator of the Cartersville Cleanup, says that there have been turnouts of about 50 volunteers in the past, but there are usually about 15 or 20.

Osborn said volunteers have been plating trees in more recent years and those trees are paid for with stimulus dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"The city received funding for trees in which trees were purchased, installed and maintained for one year," he said, adding the trees have a one-year warranty and if needed, will be replaced at no charge to the city.

Anyone is allowed to volunteer for the community cleanup in Cartersville. According to Osborn, there is no pre-registration required, and people my simply show up at , sign a form and participate in the cleanup. Volunteers will get lunch and a free T-shirt.

"All the items, including drinks, T-shirts, [and] free breakfast, we're going to have there in Atco," Osborn said. "We'd love to give away everything."

Keep Bartow Beautiful provides safety vests and gloves for volunteers, as well as a brief safety course.

"We find lots of dangerous things," Henshaw said, emphasizing that safety is very important to organizers of the cleanups.

She said they have found everything from broken glass to old commodes to rolling meth labs. "We tell people not to pick up anything that looks like it could be dangerous."

Osborn hopes to see more and more volunteers.

"[We'd like to] get a good cleanup with significant effort so that we can get a good before-and-after effect in Cartersville," Osborn said. He encourages anyone and everyone to come out and participate.

Henshaw feels the same way. She says that anybody, whether individuals or businesses, that wants to be a part of the project is welcome.

"Whether they want to sponsor it, or whether they want to be part of a cleanup team, or whether they want to help us with a recycling project, or some beautification efforts," she said. "There are so many thing that people can do to help us. They can just call Richard or myself."

Henshaw can be reached at 770-387-5167.

Editor's note — Great American Cleanup activities organized by Keep Bartow Beautiful run through June. See the calendar in the photo box for a full run down of clean ups in Bartow County, including similar activities in local schools.