Grow Greater Greenfield: ‘Showing we care’

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Grow Greater Greenfield, a local organization also known as G3, will host a community cleanup event on Saturday, Sept. 26.

After the organization was unable to hold its events, including Oktoberfest, G3 Board Chairman Merleen Van Dyke said organization members wanted to do something for the community.

“Typically we would’ve cleaned up the part of the street that we would’ve used for Oktoberfest,” Van Dyke said. “We felt like we needed to do something to get out there and show that we care about our community.”

Though G3 held a small cleanup in May that focused mainly on the area surrounding the City Building, Van Dyke said G3 volunteer Terran Yoakem suggested holding a larger cleanup event.

Yoakem and her sister, Abby McDonald, joined G3 in March because they wanted to help around the Greenfield community. According to Yoakem, the sisters became interested in holding a local cleanup event in January. Now, Yoakem said she hopes that the cleanup event will become a more regular event in the village.

“We want to try and hold a community cleanup day twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall from now on out,” Yoakem said. “I hope by trying to keep up on it and having [cleanup events] twice a year it’ll get some groups involved — like the ROTC group at the school, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, church volunteer groups and the such.”

The organization welcomes all community members and other local organizations to meet at the City Building, located 300 Jefferson St. at the corner of Washington Street, at 9 a.m. on Saturday. Members of the organization will pass out trash bags, gloves and maps.

The organization asks volunteers to follow social distancing guidelines.

Volunteers will spend around half of the day removing trash from the main streets of Greenfield such as Jefferson and Washington streets and the village’s entry points, including the bridge near SR 753 and the area near the Dollar General on SR 28, Yoakem told The Times-Gazette.

“We are simply trying to help our community out by beautifying our town,” Yoakem said. “We hope by taking care of some of the trash that has either been littered or blown away, we can make our small town a little more appealing to those that pass through so maybe they will also stop by some of our local businesses, which would help drum up some income for our small town.”

Van Dyke added that G3 board members are in the process of finalizing details for a pumpkin carving contest, which will take place at the City Building on Oct. 24 from 6-8 p.m.

Van Dyke said the board is also planning to hold its annual Souper Bowl event in late February.

Find Grow Greater Greenfield on Facebook.

Reach McKenzie Caldwell at 937-402-2570.

Greenfield community cleanup event set for Saturday

By McKenzie Caldwell

[email protected]

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