Hundreds of volunteers converged on the streets and waterways of Paris for Saturday’s inaugural “Keep Paris Beautiful / Garbage to Shine the County Lamar”.
“This is truly a dream come true,” Portugal Mayor Paula told 211 volunteers who gathered at the Love Civic Center to receive supplies. , I couldn’t, so I made it happen as soon as possible.”
Supplies quickly ran out, but the organizers considered this a good thing.
“We planned for 150 volunteers,” Julia Trigg Crawford, president of Keep Paris Beautiful, told the audience. She said, “She bought 200 shirts and ran out.”
Additional crates of reach extenders and other supplies were found and quickly distributed, but most of the trash bags remained unclaimed.
Volunteers were grouped into 21 teams representing families, schools and businesses. These include Paris Junior College, Northeast Texas Trail Coalition, RPM Staffing, Paris High School Crimestoppers, Paris Community Theatre, Chitham Middle School Junior Beta Club Chapter.
Portugal said it costs about $5,000 to sort out the waste and hopes the effort will become an annual event.
The mayor told volunteers, “I want you to know that this happens every spring.”
Several city cleaners grilled hot dogs for the volunteers, and employees of the local emergency center, HealthCARE Express, provided coffee, tea and muffins.
Former Texas Congressman Mark Homer and his family were on hand to deliver coupons to business owner Sonic’s location, later gifting the team that collected the most trash.
Assistant City Manager Robert Vine gave volunteers safety tips before dozens of teams ventured through the city.
“A happy successful event is a safe event,” Vine told volunteers, noting that each team received a safety sheet and emergency medical services were on standby. is not.”
The large crowd dispersed in many directions, heading to destinations such as Northeast Fifth Avenue, Tudor Street, Bywaters Park, and Crook Lake.
Mayor Protem Reginald Hughes led a team of young volunteers to pick up litter, including along Northeast 8th Avenue and Fitzhugh Avenue at the Booker T. Washington Homes.
“I brought my young nieces and nephews on purpose so they could understand the process that most of the trash we picked up was thrown by people,” Hughes says. explained after.
Crawford said the team collected 207 bags of trash, removing shopping carts, used ammunition, multiple tires, car bumpers and various other debris from every quadrant of the city.
“Today’s volunteers represented Paris at its best,” Crawford wrote in an email after taking out the trash.
https://theparisnews.com/news/trash-off-is-a-success-in-lamar-county/article_faa96e46-df91-11ed-9d05-0350d39f15d5.html Garbage Dumping Success in Lamar County | News
