Tawney Crowley, of the Wrangell Sentinel, volunteered at the annual Helping Our Parks Project. She is pictured here installing bird spikes on the baseball field bleachers, to keep birds from roosting on the bleachers.
Volunteers Terry Courson (left) and Brian Shilts (right) attempt to untangle a new net for the batting cage at Volunteer Park. According to Parks and Rec Director Kate Thomas, 61 people came out for the annual Helping Our Parks Project last Saturday, working a rough total of 211 hours of labor through the day.
The third Helping Our Parks Project, according to Wrangell Parks and Recreation Director Kate Thomas, was a huge success. The HOP Project is an annual event organized by the parks and rec department, where volunteers come out to parks around Wrangell and help with cleaning and upkeep.
Thomas said that they saw 61 volunteers at Volunteer Park last Saturday morning. This was on the higher end of the number of volunteers they have seen. In a previous interview, Thomas said that they see between 50 to 60 volunteers every year. City officials, members of the school board, and many other people came out to help. Thomas pointed out the wide age range of volunteers, as well. There were children as young as 2-years-old and residents over 70-years-old out at the park helping, she said. Volunteer Park is an important part of the Wrangell community, she said, and people of all ages use it.
"Every year we hope to see a large number of people come," Thomas said. "The age span and interest in our park is huge."
Approximately 211 hours of work were donated by volunteers. There were a wide variety of projects for people to work on, ranging from cleaning bleachers and sweeping out the dugouts, to bigger jobs like installing a new net on the batting cage and cutting down encroaching trees and brush around the park. Other projects included installing bird spikes around the bleachers, clearing and leveling the baseball fields, fence repair, and moving the posts for the volleyball net.
Thomas said that almost all of the projects they had listed were completed, with the exception of repainting the dugouts and park bathrooms. She said that they decided to hold off on any paint jobs because of rainy weather being forecast for the near future. While there are no immediate plans for the future, Thomas said that the parks and rec department hopes to hold a HOP Project at Shoemaker Park in the future, where they want to build a new pavilion.
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