Parks Volunteers Keep Park beautiful!

(Sacramento Press) The Land Park Volunteer Corps is kicking off its 2011 season with its first Park Work Day of the year this Saturday, March 5th in William Land Park. Volunteers can report for duty at the Corps' "Base Camp" located in the large picnic grounds directly behind William Land Park.

Volunteers can check-in at 9:00 a.m. and enjoy a complimentary light breakfast offered by Espresso Metro. They will also hear a brief gardening talk on the topic of "Preparing Your Garden for Spring" offered by Capitol Nursery. At 9:30 a.m, volunteers will be dispatched to one of eight different projects areas in the park. A Corps Refreshment Cart will make frequent visits to each project site to keep each volunteer well hydrated. At Noon, Corps members will return to Base Camp for a free lunch underwritted by Land Park Gas.

The Land Park Volunteer Corps was launched in May of last year and has singed up 325 volunteers and donors from around the city to care for William Land Park. Last year it completed 42 projects and logged over 1600 volunteer hours. Since its formation last year, two other park volunteer corps have been formed in the city, at McKinley and Tahoe Parks.

This spring the Land Park Volunteer Corps is holding a fundraising drive to raise funds to complete a gardening tool inventory. Until now, the Corps has relied primarily on gardening tools made available to it by the city's Department of Parks and Recreation. With new park support groups forming around town, the tools offered by the city are now in heavy demand. To free up these tools for use by other groups and to assure the availability of tools for its own Park Work Days, the Land Park Volunteer Corps is seeking to raise funds to complete its own gardening tool inventory. It is also asking its volunteers to bring a spare gardening tool on Saturday to donate to the Corps.

Folks wishing to support the Corps and William Land Park can mail their checks to: Land Park Volunteer Corps, 4678 Cabana Way, Sacramento, CA 95822. You may contact the Corps by calling its Lead Coordinator, Craig Powell, at 718-3030 or e-mailing Craig at ckpinsacto@aol.com. Hope to see you in the park!

The Sacramento Press published this story March 3, 2011