The Great Falls Park and Recreation Department’s community involvement program ‘Adopt a Park’ is seeking volunteers to be a part of the initiative to keep public parks clean.
“The ‘Adopt a Park’ program has been in place for many years; since I came on and our new deputy director, Jessica Compton came on, we've kind of revamped the system, and we're trying to introduce it to the community in a new way,” said Kevin Vining, park supervisor.
Anyone in the community is able to join the program, which focuses on community members being the eyes and ears of our local public parks.
Art Taft, a member of the parks advisory board, has been a part of the ‘Adopt a Park’ program for about a year now and said it allows community members like him to play a major role in protecting the public parks they visit on a regular basis.
“It’s really important for citizens to understand that this is our public park. This belongs to you and me, and why not take an interest in what's going on with our parks? Like keeping up with the litter, making sure that the parks department knows that they have a water line break, or if the playground equipment is broken and bring attention to that,” Taft said.
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Currently only five parks have an active volunteer group with the adopt a park program, but the Park and Recreation Department is soliciting more volunteers to help keep all 57 developed parks in Great Falls clean and safe for the community to enjoy.
“We have 57 developed parks, among other areas that we take care of. We would be happy to have a group for every single park, and some parks are bigger than others, so the need is greater. So, we're looking to have as many folks that want to be involved, at a level they can be involved, as possible,” said Vining.
Taft added, “I come here, I enjoy this, I treat this as my own lawn, so get involved. That's what we're here today to ask people. Just get involved in your parks, just keep an eye out on things.”
For those involved, tasks include helping to pick up litter in your designated park, informing Park and Rec of any issues with equipment or upkeep, and other duties to ensure your park is good to go.
“Just put their eyes and ears in their community and on those parks and be able to share things going on in those parks that we need to be aware of, and then we can take care of them sooner, or we can react to situations that need to be taken care of quicker,” Vining added. “We're looking for a large amount of folks that would be willing to donate that small amount of time per month and I think it would make all of our parks and community just a safer, cleaner place for people to go out and enjoy the outdoors and at no cost.”
Applications to be a part of the program are available through the Park and Recreation Department website.
