Five Key Clubbers participated in the cleanup of Glenn Hall Park from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Sacramento on Sept. 14.

Key Club’s President Emily Miller discovered the service event on Volunteermatch.org when searching for projects for Key Clubbers to partake in.

“I was trying to find something close to us, and this one seemed like it would be fun and easy and people would come to it,” Miller said.

Key Clubbers from Sacramento and Florin high schools as well as some adult volunteers from around the community also participated in this project.

“We raked leaves and trimmed hedges and pulled weeds and pretty much just beautified a park,” Miller said.

The park’s cleanliness, however, serves a philanthropic purpose along with aesthetics.

“Five years ago we had a sexual assault in this park, and as a result, I worked with the police department and we did what’s called a ‘Crime Prevention through Environmental Design’ report,” Parks Commissioner Jeff Harris said.

Harris, police officers, and the park ranger inspected the entire park after the assault and identified several unsafe conditions, one in particular being lack of visibility. The overgrown hedges around the park provided optimum coverage for the assault to occur.

“Once everybody heard that cleaning up this park made it safer, we all banded together and worked as hard as we could to get the job done,” Key Club treasurer Joseph Kiefer said.

Cleanups at Glenn Hall occur, generally, every two months.

“It’s driven by the needs of the park. If things are getting overgrown or if I find any conditions that we really need to address, I call a meeting,” Harris said.

Harris estimates for the next service event at Glenn Hall to be in late November or late December. In the meantime, people may volunteer to work the American River Parkway Cleanup on Sept. 21. More information can be found at the American River Parkway Foundation’s website.

Harris said, “Volunteerism is very important to the city’s Parks and Recreation department right now. Our budget has been slashed by 57 percent over the last few years and we only have 47 percent of our maintenance workers still on staff. As a result, they can’t keep up with all the chores that are necessary to maintain our parks. But right now, volunteerism is really vital to keeping our parks system up and running, and pretty and safe for all our residents.”

by KAVLEEN SINGH